Ruthenium-bipyridine complexes bearing fullerene or carbon nanotubes: synthesis and impact of different carbon-based ligands on the resulting products.

This paper discusses the synthesis of two carbon-based pyridine ligands of fullerene pyrrolidine pyridine (C(60)-py) and multi-walled carbon nanotube pyrrolidine pyridine (MWCNT-py) via 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. The two complexes, C(60)-Ru and MWCNT-Ru, were synthesized by ligand substitution in the presence of NH(4)PF(6), and Ru(II)(bpy)(2)Cl(2) was used as a reaction precursor. Both complexes were characterized by mass spectroscopy (MS), elemental analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy (IR), ultraviolet/visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS) spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The results showed that the substitution way of C(60)-py is different from that of MWCNT-py. The C(60)-py and a NH(3) replaced a Cl(-) and a bipyridine in Ru(II)(bpy)(2)Cl(2) to produce a five-coordinate complex of [Ru(bpy)(NH(3))(C(60)-py)Cl]PF(6), whereas MWCNT-py replaced a Cl(-) to generate a six-coordinate complex of [Ru(bpy)(2)(MWCNT-py)Cl]PF(6). The cyclic voltammetry study showed that the electron-withdrawing ability was different for C(60) and MWCNT. The C(60) showed a relatively stronger electron-withdrawing effect with respect to MWCNT. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011