C.-H. Andersson, G. Berggren, S. Ott, H. Grennberg
FULL PAPER
a condenser. The solution was heated to 145 °C and refluxed over-
night. The solution was washed with NaOH (0.1 m), and the or-
ganic phase was collected. Toluene was removed in vacuo and the
crude product was purified by distillation. Purified yield 6.2 g,
95%, white solid. 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3, 25 °C): δ = 7.41
(AAЈ, 2 H), 6.90 (BBЈ, 2 H), 5.76 (s, 1 H), 4.13 (m, 2 H), 4.02 (m,
2 H), 3.81 (s, 3 H) ppm.
ety. The red shift of the CO frequencies upon reduction of
the complex is caused by increased back-bonding from the
chromium to the carbon monoxide, which results in a slight
decrease in C–O bond strength for the three carbon mon-
oxide ligands. It is noteworthy that the lower frequency IR
band around 1880 cm–1 is more sensitive to electronic ef-
fects than the band around 1965 cm–1 suggesting a prefer-
ential use of this band to probe redox processes going on
in the system. In this sense, the redox level of compound
Cr(1) can be determined via the relative position of the vi-
brational frequencies, v(CO), in the complex. According to
our measurements this is manifested by v(CO) = 1888 cm–1
for the neutral complex, v(CO) = 1883 cm–1 for [Cr(1)]1–
and v(CO) = 1880 cm–1 for the dianion, [Cr(1)]2–. It is
furthermore possible that this methodology could be used
to probe higher fullerene anions, but in that case another
solvent than CH2Cl2 has to be used.[14]
2-(4-Methoxyphenyl)-1,3-dioxolane-(tricarbonyl)chromium:
2-(4-
Methoxyphenyl)-1,3-dioxolane (0.8 g, 4.4 mmol), Cr(CO)6 (1.4 g,
6.4 mmol) was added to a three-necked flask equipped with a con-
denser and the flask was flushed with nitrogen. Degassed n-butyl
ether (20 mL) was added to the flask via syringe through a septum
and the solution was then heated to 160 °C and refluxed for one
hour. Degassed dry THF (6 mL) was added and also used to flush
sublimed Cr(CO)6 back down into the solution. The solution was
refluxed at 160 °C overnight. The yellow solution was then evapo-
rated and the residue was redissolved in ethyl acetate. The hetero-
geneous solution was filtered through a plug of silica to remove
green chromium by-products. The crude product was then sub-
jected to column chromatography (pentane/EtOAc, 10:1) giving
pure 2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,3-dioxolane chromium tricarbonyl as
yellow solid, yield 0.9 g, 65%. 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3, 25 °C):
δ = 5.75 (AAЈ, 2 H), 5.49 (s, 1 H), 5.08 (BBЈ, 2 H), 4.12 (m, 2 H),
3.99 (m, 2 H), 3.72 (s, 3 H) ppm.
Conclusions
We have evaluated some methods to attach arene-(tri-
carbonyl)chromium units to fullerene C60 and successfully
prepared a new fulleropyrrolidine-(tricarbonyl)chromium
4-Methoxybenzaldehyde-(tricarbonyl)chromium:
2-(4-Methoxy-
complex via a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition involving a tri- phenyl)-1,3-dioxolane-(tricarbonyl)chromium (218 mg, 0.7 mmol),
HCl (37%, 1 mL) and ethanol (99%, 15 mL) was added to a round-
bottomed flask and the mixture was stirred at room temp. under
nitrogen atmosphere for 4 h after which TLC showed that all start-
ing material had been consumed. The solvent was evaporated and
the crude product was chromatographed on basic Al2O3 (pentane/
EtOAc) to yield the pure product as an orange solid; yield 173 mg,
carbonylchromium arene aldehyde as one of the reactants.
In contrast, we were unable to prepare tricarbonylchro-
mium arene complexes of C60 by direct complexation to
arene-functionalized C60 or by adapting reported transi-
tion-metal mediated arene-C60 coupling methods. The suc-
cessfully prepared fulleropyrrolidine-(tricarbonyl)chromium
complex has been characterized by 1H NMR and 13C
NMR, cyclic voltammetry, bulk electrolysis and IR spec-
troscopy and was found to be chemically and electrochemi-
cally stable. IR spectroelectrochemistry revealed a clear de-
pendence of the CO frequencies on the redox state of the
1
92%. H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3, 25 °C): δ = 9.39 (s, 1 H), 6.06
(AAЈ, 2 H), 5.19 (BBЈ, 2 H), 3.80 (s, 3 H) ppm.
1-Methyl-2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3,4-[60]fulleropyrrolidine-(tri-
carbonyl)chromium [Cr(1)]: C60 (80 mg, 0.1 mmol), 4-methoxybenz-
aldehyde-(tricarbonyl)chromium (30 mg, 0.1 mmol) and sarcosine
(18 mg, 0.2 mmol) was added to a round-bottomed flask equipped
with a condenser. Degassed toluene (60 mL) was added and the
solution was refluxed at 130 °C overnight under nitrogen atmo-
sphere. The solvent was evaporated and the residue was chromato-
graphed on silica using dichloromethane as eluent. The product
was obtained as a brown solid, yield 30 mg, 27%. 1H NMR
(500 MHz, CS2/CDCl3, 25 °C): δ = 6.18 (dd, J = 7.2, 1.9 Hz, 1 H,
HD), 5.78 (dd, J = 7.2, 1.9 Hz, 1 H, HE), 5.22 (dd, J = 7.1, 2.3 Hz,
1 H, HG), 5.09 (dd, J = 7.1, 2.3 Hz, 1 H, HF), 4.96 (d, J = 9.7 Hz,
2 H, HA), 4.64 (s, 1 H, HC), 4.31 (d, J = 9.7 Hz, 2 H, HB), 3.73 (s,
3 H, O-CH3), 3.15 (s, 3 H, N-CH3) ppm. 13C NMR (125 MHz,
CS2/CDCl3, 25 °C): δ = 232.4, 155.6, 153.4, 151.8, 147.4, 147.3,
146.34, 146.30, 146.25, 146.20, 146.12, 146.10, 146.0, 145.7, 145.6,
145.55, 145.4, 145.37, 145.30, 145.27, 145.18, 145.15, 144.7, 144.5,
144.4, 144.2, 143.1, 143.05, 142.8, 142.66, 142.61, 142.4, 142.20,
142.14, 142.12, 142.05, 141.9, 141.7, 141.67, 141.62, 140.4, 139.9,
139.4, 136.9, 136.3, 136.1, 135.4, 128.3, 101.3, 93.3, 91.7, 79.1, 78.1,
C
60 part of the complex and hence communication between
the C60 and the tricarbonylchromium moiety is proven. It
was further found that IR spectroscopy can be efficiently
used to probe the redox states of the fulleropyrrolidine via
the relative frequencies of the carbon monoxide ligands in
the complex, which red-shifts as the complex is reduced.
Experimental Section
General: Thin-layer chromatography analyses were performed on
pre-coated Merck silica gel plates (60 F254) and visualized with UV
light. 1H and 13C NMR spectra were recorded on a Varian
500 MHz spectrometer and chemical shifts are given in ppm (δ)
using the residual CHCl3 peak as internal standard. Solid state
IR spectra were recorded on a Perkin–Elmer Spectrum-100 FT-IR
spectrometer with an ATR accessory. The samples were analyzed
by placing neat samples directly on the ATR crystal. Solution state
IR was performed using a Perkin–Elmer FT-IR spectrometer. UV
spectra were recorded on a Varian Cary 3 Bio UV/Vis spectrometer.
71.2, 67.7, 55.5, 41.0 ppm. FT-IR (neat): ν = 2952, 2916, 2848,
˜
2783 (C–H), 1960, 1877 (CϵO), 1538, 1482, 1461, 1430, 1252,
1178, 1020, 904, 768, 731, 666 cm–1. C73H13CrNO4·H2O (1037.04):
calcd. C 84.48, H 1.44, N 1.35; found C 84.29, H 1.49, N 1.37.
2-(4-Methoxyphenyl)-1,3-dioxolane: 4-Methoxybenzaldehyde (5 g,
36 mmol), ethylene glycol (5 g, 80 mmol), p-toluenesulfonic acid
monohydrate (50 mg, 0.26 mmol) and toluene (50 mL) was added
to a round-bottomed flask equipped with a Dean–Stark trap with
Electrochemistry: Cyclic voltammetry and controlled potential elec-
trolysis were carried out in an inert atmosphere in a glovebox by
using an Autolab potentiostat with a GPES electrochemical inter-
face (Eco Chemie). Sample solutions (4 mL) were prepared from
1748
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Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2011, 1744–1749