(η6-Benzene)(δ/λ-1,1‘-biphenyl-2,2‘-diamine)chlorometal(II) hexafluorophosphate (1; metal
= ruthenium, osmium) have been synthesized. The rigid nature of the seven-membered
chelate ring formed by the 1,1‘-biphenyl-2,2‘-diamine (dabp) ligand renders the complexes
chiral. The resulting C
1 molecular symmetry of 1(M=Ru) that we have observed in the solid
state by single-crystal X-ray crystallography is preserved in solution on the NMR time scale.
The four N−H protons of 1(M=Ru,Os) are chemically inequivalent in the 1H NMR spectrum
at 20 °C. Spin-perturbation NMR experiments in acetone solutions reveal pairwise exchange
of the resonances that correspond to the N−H protons on the spin-relaxation time scale.
The three mechanisms that would account for such an exchange (atropisomerization of the
dabp ligand, inversion of stereochemistry at the metal center, and simultaneous inversion
of the stereochemistry at the metal and the ligand) are distinguishable, provided a proper
assignment of the four N−H protons can be made in the NMR spectra. Having made that
assignment, we conclude from 2D EXSY NMR spectroscopy that the mechanism of exchange
is inversion of stereochemistry at the dabp ligand center. This observation contrasts with
previous reports that conformational isomers of dabp can be resolved.