Dinuclear N-heterocyclic carbene complexes of silver(I), derived from imidazolium-linked cyclophanes

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry no. 21; pp. 3756 - 3764
• Main Authors: Baker, Murray V, Brown, David H, Haque, Rosenani A, Skelton, Brian W, White, Allan H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 07.11.2004
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/B408741K

The synthesis of four new silver complexes of bidentate N-heterocyclic carbenes, derived from imidazolium-linked cyclophanes, has been achieved via a simple complexation reaction of the imidazolium-linked cyclophanes with the basic metal source Ag(2)O. The cyclophane structures contain two imidazolyl links between ortho-, meta- and mixed ortho/meta-substituted aromatic rings. The new silver carbene systems are thermally stable and have been characterised by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. Three of the complexes have a dimeric structure of the form [L(2)Ag(2)](2+) in the solid state that is rigid on the NMR timescale in solution. The fourth complex has a neutral structure of the form [L(AgBr)(2)], the NMR studies suggesting some lability of the L-Ag bonding in solution.