A hybrid imidazolylidene/imidazolium nickel NHC complex: an isolated intermediate

Abstract

Macrocyclic ligand systems with a variety of (different) donor sites oftentimes give rise to very exciting and unexpected multinuclear metal complexes. We report herein the structure of a trinuclear mixed imidazolylidene/imidazolium nickel N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complex, namely di-μ-chlorido-bis{μ-calix[2]imidazolium[2]imidazolylidene[2]pyrazolate}trinickel(II) tetrakis(hexafluoridophosphate) acetonitrile tetrasolvate, [Ni₃(C₂₄H₂₄N₁₂)₂Cl₂](PF₆)₄·4CH₃CN or [Ni₃(L^Me)₂Cl₂](PF₆)₄·4CH₃CN, that can be understood as a trapped reaction intermediate during the synthesis of the respective [Ni₂L^Me](PF₆)₂ product. The structure not only contains protonated next to deprotonated imidazole heterocycles, but also Ni²⁺ ions with fundamentally different coordination modes within one molecule. Two of the three metal atoms are coordinated in a square-pyramidal fashion by half a ligand molecule and one chloride ligand, whereas the third Ni²⁺ ion is bound octahedrally by four pyrazolate moieties and two chloride anions.

Keywords: N-heterocyclic carbene; NHC; crystal structure; macrocyclic ligand; transition metal; trapped intermediate.