F.M. Nareetsile et al. / Journal of Organometallic Chemistry 682 (2003) 2ꢂ
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7
0.0299
/
0.004 sꢁ1, respectively. The activation energy Ea
Acknowledgements
was found to be 221 kJ molꢁ1
.
We would like to thank the THRIP, the NRF (project
#2053379) and the Universities of Botswana and the
Witwatersrand for financial aid. Sigi Heiss and Richard
Mampa are thanked for recording the NMR spectra.
3.2.1. Mechanism
The conversion of the ttt isomer to the cct-isomer in
the solid state is unidirectional, and no ccc isomer was
detected [18]. The reaction is unimolecular and first
order. It is assumed that the isomerisation reaction is an
intramolecular process involving no loss of ligands from
the Ru during the ligand exchange.
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Three possible mechanisms for solid state reactions of
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the other ligands [19]. A consideration of the complexes
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4. Conclusion
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The isomerisation reaction of
RuCl2(RNC)2(PPh3)2 (Rꢀ
2,6-xylyl, tBu, Pr, benzyl,
a series of ttt-
i
/
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MeClPh) complexes to their cct-RuCl2(RNC)2(PPh3)2
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coordinate Re complexes [5].
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