The formation of the sitting-atop (SAT) complexes of 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin (H(2)tpp), 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)porphyrin (H(2)t(4-Clp)p), 5,10,15,20-tetramesitylporphyrin (H(2)tmp), and 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethylporphyrin (H(2)oep) with the Cu(II) ion was spectrophotometrically confirmed in aqueous acetonitrile (AN), and the formation rates were determined as a function of the water concentration (C(W)). The decrease in the conditional first-order rate constants with the increasing C(W) was reproduced by taking into consideration the contribution of [Cu(H(2)O)(an)(5)](2+) in addition to [Cu(an)(6)](2+) to form the Cu(II)-SAT complexes. The second-order rate constants for the reaction of [Cu(an)(6)](2+) and [Cu(H(2)O)(an)(5)](2+) at 298 K were respectively determined as follows: (4.1 +/- 0.2) x 10(5) and (3.6 +/- 0.2) x 10(4) M(-1) s(-1) for H(2)tpp, (1.15 +/- 0.06) x 10(5) M(-1) s(-1) and negligible for H(2)t(4-Clp)p, and (4.8 +/- 0.3) x 10(3) and (1.3 +/- 0.3) x 10(2) M(-1) s(-1) for H(2)tmp. Since the reaction of H(2)oep was too fast to observe the reaction trace due to the dead time of 2 ms for the present stopped-flow technique, the rate constant was estimated to be greater than 1.5 x 10(6) M(-1) s(-1). According to the structure of the Cu(II)-SAT complexes determined by the fluorescent XAFS measurements, two pyrrolenine nitrogens of the meso-substituted porphyrins (H(2)tpp and H(2)tmp) bind to the Cu(II) ion with a Cu-N(pyr) distance of ca. 2.04 A, while those of the beta-pyrrole-substituted porphyrin (H(2)oep) coordinate with the corresponding bond distance of 1.97 A. The shorter distance of H(2)oep is ascribed to the flexibility of the porphyrin ring, and the much greater rate for the formation of the Cu(II)-SAT complex of H(2)oep than those for the meso-substituted porphyrins is interpreted as due to a small energetic loss at the porphyrin deformation step during the formation of the Cu(II)-SAT complex. The overall formation constants, beta(n), of [Cu(H(2)O)(n)()(an)(6)(-)(n)](2+) for the water addition in aqueous AN were spectrophotometrically determined at 298 K as follows: log(beta(1)/M(-1)) = 1.19 +/- 0.18, log(beta(2)/M(-2)) = 1.86 +/- 0.35, and log(beta(3)/M(-3)) = 2.12 +/- 0.57. The structure parameters around the Cu(II) ion in [Cu(H(2)O)(n)(an)(6-n)](2+) were determined using XAFS spectroscopy.

The structures of solvated complexes of Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), and In(III) ions in 1,1,3,3-tetramethylurea (TMU) have been determined by means of EXAFS (extended X-ray absorption fine structure) and electronic spectroscopy. The solvation structures in TMU are square pyramidal for the Mn(II) and Ni(II) ions, distorted tetrahedral for the Co(II) and Cu(II) ions, tetrahedral for the Zn(II) ion, and octahedral for the Cd(II) and In(III) ions, while in water all these metal ions are six-coordinated octahedrons. The solvation structure of Fe(II) ion is square pyramidal or trigonal bipyramidal. In the bulky TMU solvent, the coordination number should be reduced for relaxation of the sterically repulsive interaction around the solvated metal ions. The metal-oxygen (M-O) bond lengths of solvated metal ions in TMU are

The Cr(III) porphyrin complexes [Cr(tpp)(Cl)(H2O)] (1) and [(Cr(tpp)(Cl)(py)] (2) (tpp represents the dianion of 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphine) crystallized from a chloroform–toluene mixture in the tetragonal space group I4, Z = 2, a = 13.559(5), b = 13.559(5), c = 9.770(3) Å, V = 1796(3) Å3, and from a dichloroethane–toluene mixture containing a small amount of pyridine (py) in the monoclinic space group P21/n, Z = 4, a = 14.655(5), b = 23.498(4), c = 13.152(2) Å, β = 101.54(1)°, V = 4437(2) Å3, respectively. The axial Cr–O bond length for 1 and the axial Cr–N bond length for 2 are 2.239(3) and 2.140(5) Å, respectively. Laser irradiation of the toluene solution of [Cr(tpp)(Cl)(L)] causes the photodissociation of the axial ligand L, where L represents H2O or 3-cyanopyridine, to give the five-coordinate intermediate [Cr(tpp)(Cl)]. The rate constant of the axial ligand recombination reaction falls into a narrow range around 1 × 109 mol−1 kg s−1 at 25.0 °C for both reactions. The activation parameters indicate the very high reactivity of the five-coordinate intermediate. The diffusion-controlled process is regarded as a rate-determining step for the recombination.