An expeditious route to cis-Ru(bpy)2C12 (bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine) using carbohydrates as reducers

The tandem use of simple mono- or disaccharides and vitamin C as organic reducers allows the synthesis of the widely used starting material cis-Ru(bpy)2Cl2 (where bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine) from commercial ruthenium (III) chloride in less than half an hour. Notably, the reaction can be run in organic aqueous solvent or in only water, hence it can be adapted to substituted 2,2′-bipyridines.

Graphical abstractThe tandem use of an organic, non-coordinating reducer such as glucose with l-ascorbic acid in ethylene glycol greatly improves the synthesis of the widely used starting material cis-Ru(bpy)2C12 (bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine). The reaction was extended to functionalised 2,2′-bipyridines. For the non-substituted ligand, the reaction was found to proceed equally well in acidic water using saccharose instead of glucose. In any cases, scaling up was found to be easily achieved and was limited only by the purification procedure.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide