Facile synthesis of heterobimetallic compounds from the cyclopentadienyl-ruthenium moiety and group 10 POCOP pincer complexes

A series of heterobimetallic complexes have been prepared by π-coordination of the [CpRu]+ fragment to the aromatic ring of POCOP pincer complexes of nickel, palladium and platinum. Their molecular structures were unequivocally determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, exhibiting the ruthenium moiety and the POCOP aromatic ring forming sandwich like species. The analysis in the solid state and in solution clearly showed that the coordination occurs in an orthogonal fashion and, as a consequence, both faces of the pincer complexes become non equivalent, thus conferring diastereotopicity to the isopropyl substituents. The electrochemical behavior of the new bimetallic complexes was studied and compared with that of the monometallic POCOP pincer precursors.