5312 Organometallics, Vol. 25, No. 22, 2006
Shaw-Taberlet et al.
Scheme 1. Definition of Type I Compounds and Selected
Resonance Forms for Fe(II) and Fe(III) Species
distinctions between binary states should arise from spectro-
scopic or electronic data.
Inter-ring haptotropic rearrangement in which a metal mi-
grates along a polyaromatic system has culminated in the design
of organometallic switches. For instance, a recent study by Do¨tz
and co-workers reported that the η6-η6 solution-state inter-ring
haptotropic rearrangement of the Cr(CO)3 arenophile on sub-
stituted naphthyl ligands proceeds photochemically in one
direction and thermally in the other.6 Other examples of
irreversible7 and chemically reversible switches8 using solution-
state haptotropic rearrangement of Cr(CO)3 have also been
reported. In addition, Benn and co-workers reported on the intra-
ring haptotropic rearrangements of nickel complexes of naph-
thalene, which occur spontaneously in the solid state, as
observed by NMR.9
In both theoretical10 and experimental11 discoveries published
within recent years, mononuclear organoiron complexes in
which a [(η2-dppe)(η5-Cp*)Fe] (dppe ) 1,2-bis(diphenylphos-
phino)ethane; Cp* ) C5Me5) redox-active terminus is σ-bonded
to a para-substituted phenylethynyl spacer have served particu-
larly well as molecular wire models (Scheme 1). For similar
complexes, electron transfer and exchange processes have been
determined to depend on the aromaticity of the conducting
ligand.12 In simple terms, the less aromatic the ligand, the more
conductive the segment. To explain this empirical discovery, a
resonance argument, summarized in Scheme 1, has been
employed. Upon oxidation to Fe(III), a quinoidal, cumulenic
mesomer IV contributes a 19-electron Fe(I). However, this
structure perturbs the aromatic stabilization present in the aryl
moiety. In conclusion, complexes containing fewer aromatic
ligands, by favoring the quinoidal form, II and IV, exhibit better
electronic transfer and exchange between termini.
In the current study, we document the novel syntheses of the
series of compounds shown in Scheme 2. Furthermore, we
compare their differing capacities to conduct an electron across
the length of the iron-ethynyl-aryl segment using multinuclear
NMR, UV-vis, IR, Mo¨ssbauer, and electron spin resonance
(ESR) spectroscopies, as well as cyclic voltammetry and X-ray
crystallography. In addition, we endeavored to vary the aro-
maticity of the ligand in situ via the η6 complexation of the
12-electron (η5-Cp*)Ru+ arenophile.13 The Ru precursor was
[(η5-Cp*)Ru(CH3CN)3][PF6],14 and complexation took place
onto either naphthyl ring A (for complexation onto the acetylide,
4) or ring B (for coordination onto the vinylidene, 3[PF6],
followed by reversible deprotonation), thus yielding both
regioisomers of interest, 6A[PF6] and 6B[PF6] (Scheme 3). The
difference in electron transfer properties between the resulting
heterobinuclear species is macroscopically readable and identi-
fies the binary states, A and B. Unfortunately, it was not possible
to isolate more than a few crystals of haptotropomer 6A[PF6]
in pure form (see Experimental Section). Therefore, the
completely characterized model compound 2[PF6] is often
compared to 6B[PF6] in place of 6A[PF6] in this proof of
concept. Finally, chemically and redox-induced haptotropic
rearrangements of the (η5-Cp*)Ru+ arenophile were shown to
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