Structural Preferences in Phosphanylthiolato Platinum(II) Complexes

Invited for this month's cover picture are the groups of Prof. Alfonso Polo and Dr. Albert Poater at the Universitat de Girona, as well as their collaborators from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia. The cover picture shows phosphanylthiolate ligand coordination on a platinum(II) center to give only the bischelate cis -P,P isomer when the ligand/Pt ratio is 2, whereas a trinuclear unexpected complex is achieved with a ligand/Pt ratio of 1. Here, the synthesis and structural determination is combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations to rationalize the reaction mechanistically and through conceptual DFT. The exciting point of this study is that it opens the door to test new experimental pathways to monitor the preferred cis or trans arrangement of bidentate ligands to platinum. (Legend: H-white, C-black, P-purple, S-yellow, Cl-green, Pt-blue.) For more details, see the Full Paper on p. 51 ff.