Tri- and tetracoordinate copper(I) complexes bearing bidentate soft/hard SN and SeN ligands based on 2-aminopyridine.

The coordination properties of the EN ligands N-(2-pyridinyl)amino-diphenylphosphine sulfide, N-(2-pyridinyl)amino-diisopropylphosphine sulfide, N-(2-pyridinyl)amino-diphenylphosphine selenide, N-(2-pyridinyl)amino-diisopropylphosphine selenide towards copper(I) precursors CuX (X = Br, I), [Cu(IPr)Cl] (IPr = 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene), and [Cu(CH(3)CN)(4)]PF(6) were studied. Treatment of CuX with EN ligands resulted in the formation of tricoordinate complexes of the type [Cu(κ(2)(E,N)-EN)X]. The reaction of [Cu(IPr)Cl] with EN ligands, followed by halide abstraction with AgSbF(6), afforded cationic tricoordinate complexes [Cu(κ(2)(S,N)-EN)(IPr)](+), while the reaction of [Cu(CH(3)CN)(4)](+) with two equivalents of EN ligands yielded tetrahedral complexes [Cu(κ(2)(E,N)-EN)(2)](+). Halide removal from [Cu(κ(2)(S,N)-SN)I] with silver salts in the presence of L = CH(3)CN and CNtBu afforded dinuclear complexes of the type [Cu(κ(2)(S,N),μ(S)-SN)(L)](2)(2+) containing bridging SN ligands. With the terminal alkynes HC≡CC(6)H(4)Me and HC≡CC(6)H(4)OMe, complexes of the formula [Cu(κ(2)(S,N)-SN-iPr)(η(2)-HC≡CC(6)H(4)Me)](+) and [Cu(κ(2)(S,N)-SN-iPr)(η(2)-HC≡CC(6)H(4)OMe)](+) were obtained. The mononuclear nature of these compounds was supported by DFT calculations. Most complexes were also characterized by X-ray crystallography.