3-methylindole-based tripodal tetraphosphine ruthenium complexes in N2 coordination and reduction and formic acid dehydrogenation

Abstract

The ruthenium(II) complexes RuCl2L1H, RuCl2L1CF3, RuCl2L1OMe and RuCl2L2H were synthesized from [Ru(η6-benzene)Cl(μ-Cl)]2 and the corresponding tripodal tris-3-methylindolephosphine-based ligands L1H, L1CF3, L1OMe, and L2H. Stoichiometric reduction of these complexes with KC8 yielded the corresponding ruthenium(0) dinitrogen complexes. The latter complexes were studied in the N2 reduction with chlorosilanes and KC8, yielding stoichiometric amounts of the silylamines. The synthesized ruthenium(II) complexes are also active catalysts for the formic acid dehydrogenation reaction.