Mechanistic studies on the Pd-Cl cleavage of dichloro-[1-alkyl-2-(naphthylazo)imidazole]palladium(II) complexes by 8-quinolinol

This work describes the kinetics and the mechanism of the reaction between 8-quinolinol (HQ) and [Pd(α-/β-NaiR)Cl2] [α-/β-NaiR = 1-alkyl-2-(naphthyl-α-/β-azo)imidazole] in acetonitrile (MeCN) medium. The product is characterized as [Pd(α-/β-NaiR)(Q)](ClO4) by different spectroscopic routes. It is established that cleavage of the Pd-Cl bond is the rate-determining step. Thermodynamic parameters (Δ‡H∘ and Δ‡S∘) are determined from variable temperature kinetic studies.