Facile fabrication of ruthenium(IV) oxide nanostructures by thermal decomposition of two new organoruthenium(II) complexes

Two new monofunctional ruthenium(II) arene complexes of the type [(η6-arene)Ru(ethylenediamine)(X)]n+ where arene is substituted benzene (p-cymene), and X are halide (Br and Cl), [(η6-p-cymene)Ru(en)Br]Br (1) and [(η6-p-cymene)Ru(en)Cl]PF6 (2), have been investigated. The X-ray crystal structures of both organoruthenium(II) complexes are reported. Both two complexes have “piano stool” geometries with η6 coordination of the arene ligand. RuO2 nanoparticles were simply synthesized by solid-state transformation of compounds 1 and 2 at 400 °C under air atmosphere. The results show that the size and morphology of the RuO2 nanoparticles are dependent upon the starting organometallic ruthenium(II) complexes.