Synthesis and structural characterization of copper(I) halide complexes containing bis(azol-1-yl)methane derived bisphosphines

•Copper chemistry of new bisphosphanes has been described.•Ligands show both bridging and chelating coordination modes.•Ligands show both phosphorus and nitrogen coordination.

The copper(I) complexes containing bisphosphines such as bis(2-diphenylphosphinoimidazol-1-yl)methane (1), bis(5-diphenylphosphinopyrazol-1-yl)methane (2) and bis(5-diphenylphosphino-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)methane (3) have been synthesized. The reaction of 1 with CuX (X = Cl, I) afforded homoleptic dinuclear complexes [Cu2(μ-X)2{CH2(1,3-C3H2N2PPh2)2}2-κ2P,P] (X = Cl, 4; I, 6). However, a mononuclear complex [CuBr(CH3CN){CH2(1,3-C3H2N2PPh2)2}-κ2P,P] (5) was isolated in the reaction of 1 with CuBr. The reaction of 2 with CuX (X = Cl, Br, I) also produced dinuclear complexes [Cu2(μ-X)2{CH2(1,2-C3H2N2PPh2)2}2-κ2P,P] (X = Cl, 7; Br, 8; I, 9). The reaction of 3 with CuCl yielded a novel 1D coordination polymer [Cu2(μ-Cl)2{CH2(1,2,4-C2HN3PPh2)2}-κ2P,N]n (10), whereas homoleptic dinuclear complexes [Cu2(μ-X)2{CH2(1,2,4-C2HN3PPh2)2}2-κ2P,P] (X = Br, 11; I, 12) were obtained in the reactions of 3 with CuX (X = Br, I). Bisphosphines 1 and 2 showed bidentate (κ2P,P) chelating mode of coordination, whereas 3 has adopted bidentate (κ2P,N) chelating mode of coordination in 10. The crystal structures of 4–7 and 10–12 have been established by single crystal X-ray crystallography.

Graphical abstractThis paper describes the synthesis and structural characterization of copper(I) halide complexes of bis(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)methane, bis(imidazol-1-yl)methane and bis(pyrazol-1-yl)methane derived bisphosphines.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide