Nitrogen Bridged Osmium-Ruthenium Complexes
The formation of [(H2O)(NH3)4Ru—N2—Os(NH3)5]4+ by the reaction of cis-Ru(NH3)4(H2O)22+and Os(NH3)5N22+ has been studied over the range 15–45 °C. The reaction followed second order kinetics with kt = 1.2 × 10–1 M–1 s–1 at 25.0 °C and Ea = 16.8 ± 0.1 kcal/mole. Measurement of equilibrium concentrations gave Keq = 4 × 103 M−1 at 25.0 °C.The (4+) dimer was stable but removal of the excess cis-Ru(NH3)4(H2O)22+ reactant by oxidation at −0.10 V was followed by dimer decomposition. The breakup obeyed simple first order kinetics with kr = 2.9 × 10−5 s−1 at 25.0 °C.Oxidation of the (4+) dimer at + 0.10 V gave a stable (5+) dimer. Removal of the excess Os(NH3)5N22+ reactant at + 0.30 V was followed by decomposition of the (5+) dimer giving Os(NH3)5N22+ and RuIII(NH3)4X2. The decomposition again obeyed first order kinetics with k1 = 1.5 × 10−5 s−1 at 25.0 °C. The (5+) dimer has an intervalence–transfer absorption band at 755 nm and is characterized as [X(NH3)4RuIII—N2—OsII(NH3)5]5+.The studies were carried out in an aqueous H2SO4–K2SO4 electrolyte of pH 3.3, µ = 0.30.