Molecular Engineering onto RuII Bis(1,2-diphenylphosphinoethane) Synthon: Toward an Original Organometallic Gelator

Inorg Chem. 2021 Aug 2;60(15):11474-11484. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c01488. Epub 2021 Jul 22.

Abstract

In this article, we report the successful molecular engineering of Ru bis-acetylides that led for the first time to a gelator and more specifically in aromatic solvents. By means of a nonlinear ligand and an extended aromatic platform, the bulky Ru bis-acetylides were able to self-assemble into lamellar structures as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in benzene, toluene, and o- and m-xylene, which in turn induced gelation of the solution with a critical gelation concentration of 30 mg/mL. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), variable temperature (VT)-NMR, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopies evidenced that hydrogen bonds are mainly responsible for the self-organization. VT-NMR and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) have also suggested that the pro-ligand and the complex stack in different ways.