Ruthenium complexes with chiral bis-pinene ligands: an array of subtle structural diversity.

A new chiral derivative of the N,N-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylamine (bpea) ligand, Me-pinene[5,6]bpea [(-)-L1], has been prepared from a new aldehyde building block [Me-pinene-aldehyde, (-)-4] arising from the monoterpene chiral pool. The tridentate (-)-L1 ligand has been employed to prepare a new set of Ru-Cl complexes in combination with didentate 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) with the general formula RuCl((-)-L1)(bpy). These complexes have been characterized in solution by cyclic voltammetry, UV-vis, and 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy. Isomeric mixtures of trans,fac-C1a and anti,mer-C1c compounds are formed when (-)-L1 is reacted with a [Ru(bpy)(MeOH)Cl3] precursor. Density functional theory calculations of all of the potential isomers of this reaction have been performed in order to interpret the experimental results in terms of electronic and steric effects and also to unravel the observed isomerization pathway between anti,mer-C1c and trans,fac-C1a.