Electron-transfer reactions from cis-dialkylbis(2,2′-bipyridyl)cobalt(III) complexes to organic oxidants
Abstract
One-electron oxidation of cis-[CoR2(bipy)2]ClO4(R = Me or Et; bipy = 2,2′-bipyridine) by organic oxidants (2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-p-benzoquinone, 2,3-dicyano-p-benzoquinone, tetracyanoethylene, and tetracyano-p-quinodimethane) in acetonitrile results in the cleavage of the pair of cobalt–alkyl bonds to yield the coupled products (R–R) exclusively. A transient absorption band observed in the electron-transfer reaction of [CoEt2(bipy)2]+ with tetracyanoethylene is shown to arise from a charge-transfer complex formed between [CoEt2(bipy)2]+ and tetracyanoethylene as a reaction intermediate. The logarithm of the rate constants (log k) for these electron-transfer reactions in acetonitrile at 298 K is linearly correlated with the difference in the redox potentials between [CoR2(bipy)2]+ and oxidants with a slope of –F/2.3RT(F is the Faraday constant). Based on the linear Gibbs energy relationship, mechanisms for the electron-transfer reactions are discussed with the aid of the Marcus theory, and the lifetimes of cis-[CoR2(bipy)2]2+ are estimated as ⩽8 × 102 ns.