A series of osmium(VI) nitrido complexes containing Schiff base ligands, [Os
VI(N)(L)Cl] (L = salophen or salen),have been synthesized by reaction of the ligand with [NBu
n4][Os
VI(N)Cl
4] in the presence of 2,6-dimethylpyridine.The
(Os
N) for the salophen complexes occur at around 1070 cm
-1 and are insensitive to the nature of thesubstituents present on the Schiff base ligand. The structures of [Os(N)(salophen)(MeOH)]ClO
4 and [Os(N)(5,5-Cl
2salophen)(MeOH)]ClO
4 have been determined by X-ray crystallography, and the Os
N bond distances are1.651 and 1.66 Å, respectively. The osmium(VI) nitrido complexes react rapidly with triphenylphosphine to producethe corresponding osmium(IV) phosphoraniminato complexes, [Os
IV(NPPh
3)(L)Cl]. The osmium(IV) complexesexhibit reversible Os
V/IV and Os
IV/III couples in cyclic voltammetry. The
E1/2 values show linear correlations withthe Hammett constants
p of the substituents on the Schiff base ligand. The structure of [Os
IV(NPPh
3)(salophen)Cl] has been determined by X-ray crystallography. The rather long Os-N(P) bond length (1.92 Å) and acuteOs-N-P bond angle (149.6
) suggest that there is no significant multiple-bond character in the Os-N bond.The
kinetics of nitrogen atom transfer from a series of 5,5'-disubstituted salophen nitrido complexes to PPh
3 havebeen studied in CH
3CN at 25.0
C by stopped-flow spectrophotometric method. The following rate law wasobtained: -d[Os(VI)]/d
t =
k2[Os(VI)][PPh
3]. The reactivities of the complexes were found to follow a Hammettcorrelation of log(
kX/
kH) with
p, with a
value of 1.9 ± 0.1. The positive
value is consistent with a transitionstate involving electrophilic attack by the nitrido ligand on the phosphorus atom.