In situ synthesis of trisubstituted methanol ligands and their potential as one-pot generators of cubane-like metal complexes

Abstract

Two different one pot routes to a variety of metal cubane compounds are reported; one route is based on an in situ benzilic acid type rearrangement and the other involves in situ nucleophilic attack at a ketone. Diketosuccinic acid in basic solution in the presence of certain divalent metal ions undergoes a benzilic acid type rearrangement to generate the carbon oxyanion, C(CO 2-)3O-, which serves as a cubane-forming bridging ligand in a series of octanuclear complexes of composition [M8{C(CO2)3O}4](H 2O)12 (M = Mg, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn). At the heart of each of these highly symmetrical aggregates is an M4O4 cubane core, each oxygen component of which is provided by the alkoxo centre of a C-(C..