Resumen de Ruthenium(II)-dppm Coordination Chemistry. An Advanced Inorganic Miniproject
A guided miniproject involving aspects of Ru(II)-diphosphine complex synthesis and characterization, suitable for advanced undergraduate students, has been devised. It combines teaching of new synthetic and characterization techniques with the opportunity for a taste of research work in the latter part of the project. Students work in teams to prepare dppm (Ph2PCH2PPh2) and the labile starting material, [RuCl2(PPh3)3]. They then individually prepare [RuCl2(dppm)2], characterize it as trans by 1H and 31P NMR spectroscopy, and investigate its thermal isomerization to cis. This part of the project is based on a literature report (Sullivan, B. P.; Meyer, T. J. Inorg. Chem. 1982, 21, 1037). Each student then undertakes a different extension to the project; this can involve a study of Ru(II) complexes of the analogous distibine Ph2SbCH2SbPPh2, of a different diphosphine (e.g. dppe, Ph2PCH2CH2PPh2), or of dppm with a different halide ligand. Assessment is on the basis 50% for laboratory work and results (partly continuously assessed), 35% for a report, and 15% for an oral presentation, the latter two produced at the end of the project.
