Ruthenium(II) 8-quinolinolates: Synthesis, characterization, crystal structure and catalysis in the synthesis of 2-oxazolines

•Synthesis of new ruthenium(II) carbonyl complexes.•Spectral characterization and crystal structure determination of the complexes.•Catalytic evaluation of Ru(II) complexes in the synthesis of 2-oxazolines.•Recovery and recycling of catalyst.

New octahedral ruthenium(II) complexes (1–4) have been synthesized from the reaction of ruthenium(II) precursors [RuHCl(CO)(EPh3)3] (E = P or As) with the bidentate Schiff base ligands, 2-((2,6-dimethylphenylimino)methyl)quinolin-8-ol (L1) and 2-((2,6-diisopropylphenylimino)methyl)quinolin-8-ol (L2) in ethanol. These complexes have been characterized by elemental analyses, IR, UV–Vis, 1H, 13C and 31P NMR and ESI-Mass spectroscopy. The molecular structure of the complex [RuCl(CO)(PPh3)2(L2)] (2) was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which reveals a distorted octahedral geometry around ruthenium(II) ion. The catalytic activity of the new complexes was evaluated for the condensation of nitriles with ethanolamine under solvent free conditions. The processes were operative with aromatic and heteroaromatic nitriles and tolerated several substitutional groups. The studies on the effect of substitution over ligands, coligands, reaction time, temperature and catalyst loading were carried out in order to find the best catalyst in this series of complexes and favorable reaction conditions. A probable mechanism for the catalytic condensation of nitrile has also been proposed. The catalyst was recovered and recycled up to five times without significant loss of its activity.

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