Tuning of the Properties of Transition-Metal Bispidine Complexes by Variation of the Basicity of the Aromatic Donor Groups

Bispidines (3,7-diazabicyclo[3.3.1]nonanes) as very rigid and highly preorganized ligands find broad application in the field of coordination chemistry, and the redox potentials of their transition metal complexes are of importance in oxidation reactions by high-valent iron complexes, aziridination catalyzed by copper complexes, and imaging by Cu-64 positron emission tomography tracers. Here, we show that the redox potentials and stability constants of the copper(II) complexes of 15 tetradentate bispidines can be varied by substitution of the pyridine rings (variation of the redox potential over ca. 450 mV and of the complex stability over approximately 10 log units). It is also shown that these variations are predictable by the pK(a) values of the pyridine groups as well as by the Hammett parameters of the substituents, and the density functional theory based energy decomposition analysis also allows one to accurately predict the redox potentials and concomitant complex stability. It is shown that the main contribution emerges from the electrostatic interaction energy, and the partial charges of the pyridine donor groups therefore also correlate with the redox potentials.