Synthesis, structures and catalytic properties of palladacycles derived from N,N-dimethylaminomethylferrocene

Cyclopalladated complexes with a N,N-dimethylaminomethylferrocenyl (dmaf) backbone and three pyridine co-ligands, [Pd{(η5-C5H5)Fe[(η5-C5H3)CH2NMe2]}Cl(R-Py)] (2: R = 4-H; 3: R = 4-cyano; 4: 4-N,N-dimethylamino) have been synthesized and characterized. The single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses show that the palladium(II) in both 3 or 4 is coordinated in a distorted square planar geometry with the two nitrogen atoms trans to each other. The three palladacyles were shown to greatly catalyze the methanolysis of the Pdouble bond; length as m-dashS containing pesticide parathion but showed different accelerations. It was found that the replacement of phenyl by ferrocenyl in the palladacycle backbone of 2 lowers the kinetic image of the Pd-(HOCH3) required for activity by almost 2 units.