Coordination of N,N' bidentate ligands aryl-pyridin-2-ylmethyl-amine ArNH-CH
2-2-C
5H
4N
1 (Ar = 4-CH
3-C
6H
4,
1a;4-CH
3O-C
6H
4,
1b; 2,6-(CH
3)
2-C
6H
3,
1c; 4-CF
3-C
6H
4,
1d) to the moieties [Ru(bipy)
2]
2+, [Ru(
5-C
5H
5)L]
+ (L = CH
3CN,CO), or [Ru(
6-arene)Cl]
2+ (arene = benzene,
p-cymene) occurs under diastereoselective or diastereospecificconditions. Detailed stereochemical analysis of the new complexes is included. The coordination of these secondaryamine ligands activates their oxidation to imines by molecular oxygen in a base-catalyzed reaction and hydrogenperoxide was detected as byproduct. The amine-to-imine oxidation was also observed under the experimentalconditions of cyclic voltammetry measurements. Deprotonation of the coordinated amine ligands afforded isolatableamido complexes only for the ligand (1-methyl-1-pyridin-2-yl-ethyl)-
p-tolyl-amine,
1e, which doesn't contain hydrogenatoms in a
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
position relative to the N-H bond. The structures of [Ru(2,2'-bipyridine)
2(1b)](PF
6)
2,
2b; [Ru(2,2'-bipyridine)
2(1c)](PF
6)
2,
2c;
trans-[RuCl
2(COD)(1a)],
3; and [RuCl
2(
6-C
6H
6)(1a)]PF
6,
4a, have been confirmed byX-ray diffraction studies.