Platinum wonders

This is impressive. Not only have they successfully made the fascinating (and elusive?) Pt (IV) complexes, their investigations also led us to a number of thought-provoking questions. First, can a Pd (II) / Pd (IV) parallel be drawn - this will definitely become useful insights to synthetic chemists. The system they have been using to achieve this is an interesting one - a pyridine linked to a fluorobenzene. The ortho hydrogen to the pyridine ring that has shown some intriguing interactions to the platinum centre. Thus if we modify the substituent group on the benzene to other types of functionality (e.g. EDG), the impact it will impart on this 'reactive hydrogen' is also worth looking at. This kind of makes sense because the authors have noted torsional effects on the phenyl-pyridine ring towards the energy profile. Of course, the alkyl group on the pyridine - which is where all the agostic interactions originate and the key to the formation of the Pt (IV) centre. It will also be great to see what will happen if we impart some form of restrictions to this side chains (e.g. installation of t-butyl group or a more complicated side chain) and probe the differences it will cause to the formation of the Pt(IV) centres. Overall, a very useful investigation.


Reference:
Platinum(IV) centres with agostic interactions from either sp2 or sp3 C–H bonds Sarah H. Crosby, Robert J. Deeth, Guy J. Clarkson and Jonathan P. Rourke
Dalton Trans., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0DT01428A