A comparative synthetic, structural, and thermochemical study on a series of chelate complexes containing thefragment (
5-C
5Me
5)Ir [(
5-C
5Me
5)Ir(TsNCH
2CH
2NTs) (
1), (
5-C
5Me
5)Ir(TsNCH
2CO
2) (
2), (
5-C
5Me
5)Ir(CO
2CO
2) (
3)] was performed to clarify the roles of carboxylato and sulfonamido ligands. Whereas
1 and
2 aremonomeric in solution and in the solid state,
3 appears to exist as an oligomer or polymer, (
3)
n, which can bebroken up by addition of a ligand L such as a phosphine, CO, or 2-methoxypyridine to form (
5-C
5Me
5)Ir(L)(CO
2CO
2) (
6). The synthesis of (
3)
n from [(
5-C
5Me
5)IrCl(
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
-Cl)]
2 required the use of silver oxalate in CH
3CN, but ifother solvents were used, the bridging oxalato complex (
5-C
5Me
5)IrCl(
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
-
2-
2-C
2O
4)ClIr(
5-C
5Me
5) (
7) wasobtained and identified by X-ray diffraction. Enthalpies for reaction of THF-soluble monomers
1 and
2 withPMe
3 were determined to be -28.7(0.5) and -28.5(0.4) kcal mol
-1, respectively. The oligomerization behaviorof
3 may be a result of reduced
![](/images/gifchars/sigma.gif)
- or
![](/images/gifchars/pi.gif)
-donation of carboxylato ligands compared to
N-tosylamido ligands,because the values for
CO in oxalato and bissulfonamido complexes
6-CO and (
5-C
5Me
5)Ir(CO)(TsNCH
2CH
2NTs) (
4-CO) were 2064 and 2042 cm
-1, respectively.