Palladium complexes with simple iminopyridines as catalysts for polyketone synthesis.

Four iminopyridines (N-N') differing in the nature of the substituents on the iminic carbon and on the ortho positions of the aryl ring (H or CH3) on the iminic nitrogen were used for the synthesis of neutral and monocationic palladium(ii) complexes of general formulae [Pd(CH3)Cl(N-N')] and [Pd(CH3)(NCCH3)(N-N')][PF6]. The detailed NMR characterization in solution highlighted that: (i) for both series of complexes, the Pd-CH3 signal is progressively shifted to a lower frequency on increasing the number of methyl groups on the ligand skeleton; (ii) for the neutral derivatives, the chemical shift of the (15)N NMR signals, determined through {(1)H,(15)N}-HMBC spectra, is significantly affected by the coordination to palladium; (iii) the coordination induced shift (CIS) of the nitrogen atom trans to the CH3 ligand is smaller than the other. The structure in the solid state for the neutral derivatives with all the four ligands was solved, pointing out that: (iv) the Pd-C bond distance increases with the basicity of the nitrogen-donor ligand; (v) the Pd-N bond distance correlates well with the CIS value.