Consecutive thermal H2 and light-induced O2 evolution from water promoted by a metal complex.

Discovery of an efficient artificial catalyst for the sunlight-driven splitting of water into dioxygen and dihydrogen is a major goal of renewable energy research. We describe a solution-phase reaction scheme that leads to the stoichiometric liberation of dihydrogen and dioxygen in consecutive thermal- and light-driven steps mediated by mononuclear, well-defined ruthenium complexes. The initial reaction of water at 25 degrees C with a dearomatized ruthenium (II) [Ru(II)] pincer complex yields a monomeric aromatic Ru(II) hydrido-hydroxo complex that, on further reaction with water at 100 degrees C, releases H2 and forms a cis dihydroxo complex.

Solvent dependent reactivity: solvent activation vs. solvent coordination in alkylphosphane iron complexes.

The pyridine-derived tetrapodal tetraphosphane C5H3N[CMe(CH2PMe2)2]2 is susceptible to selective protonolysis of a phosphorus-carbon bond in the presence of iron(II) salts. Water produces dimethylphosphinic acid, Me2POH, and protonates the anionic remainder of the tetraphosphane. The resulting iron(II) complexes and (tetrafluoroborate and perchlorate salts, respectively) contain the residual chelate ligand in which a methyl group, derived from the ligand skeleton, is in agostic interaction with the metal centre, and in which Me2POH, unavailable in the free state owing to rapid tautomerisation, is metal-coordinated and thus stabilised.

Ligand cleavage put into reverse: P--C bond breaking and remaking in an alkylphosphane iron complex.

Complex formation between FeX(2)6 H(2)O (X=BF(4) or ClO(4)) and the pyridine-derived tetrapodal tetraphosphane C(5)H(3)N[CMe(CH(2)PMe(2))(2)](2) (1) in methanol proceeds with solvent-induced cleavage of one PMe(2) group. Depending on the reaction temperature and the nature of the counterion, iron(II) is coordinated, in distorted square-pyramidal fashion, by the anionic remainder of the chelating ligand, C(5)H(3)N[CMe(CH(2)PMe(2))(2)][CMe(CH(2)PMe(2))(CH(2) (-))] (NP(3)C(-) donor set: X=BF(4), -50 degrees C: 2; X=ClO(4), RT: 4) or its protonated form C(5)H(3)N[CMe(CH(2)PMe(2))(2)][CMe(CH(2)PMe(2))(CH(3))], in which the methyl group is in agostic interaction with the metal centre (X=BF(4), RT: 3; X=ClO(4), +50 degrees C: 5). A monodentate phosphinite ligand Me(2)POMe, formed from the cleaved PMe(2) group and methanol, completes the coordination octahedron in both cases.