Chloride ion-aided one-pot template self-assembly of a mixed pyrazoloxime ligand with phenylboronic acid on a corresponding metal(II) ion as a matrix afforded the first boron-capped zinc, cobalt, iron, and manganese pseudoclathrochelate tris-pyrazoloximates. The presence of a pseudocross-linking hydrogen-bonded chloride ion is critical for their formation, as the same chloride-capped complexes were isolated even in the presence of large excesses of bromide and iodide ions. As revealed by X-ray diffraction, all complexes are capped with a chloride ion via three N-H···Cl hydrogen bonds that stabilize their pseudomacrobicyclic frameworks. The MN6 coordination polyhedra possess a distorted trigonal prismatic geometry, with the distortion angles φ between their nonequivalent N3 bases of approximately 0°. Temperature dependences of the effective magnetic moment for the paramagnetic complexes showed the encapsulated metal(II) ions to be in a high-spin state in the temperature range of 2-300 K. In the case of the iron(II) pseudoclathrochelate, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT calculations were used to assess its spin state as well as the (57)Fe Mössbauer and UV-vis-NIR parameters. Cyclic voltammetry studies performed for these pseudomacrobicyclic complexes showed them to undergo irreversible or quasi-reversible metal-localized oxidations and reductions. As no changes are observed in the presence of a substantial excess of bromide ion, no anion-exchange reaction occurs, and thus the pseudoclathrochelates have a high affinity toward chloride anions in solution.

Specially designed hexachlorine-containing cobalt(II) tris-dioximate clathrochelates were found to efficiently electrocatalyze the production of molecular hydrogen from H(+) ions without the overpotential of this process.

The reactions of tetrachloroauric(III) acid (HAuCl4) with the thioamides; 2-mercapto-benzothiazole (mbztH) and 5-ethoxy-2-mercapto-benzimidazole (EtmbzimH) lead to the desulfuration of the ligands and the formation of the ionic complexes {[AuCl4]- [bztH2]+} (1), and {[AuCl4]- [EtbzimH2]+ (H2O)} (2) (where bztH2+ and EtbzimH2+ are the desulfurated cations of the starting ligands). The reaction of HAuCl4 with 2-mercapto-nicotinic acid (mnaH2), however results in the formation of 2-sulfonate-nicotininc acid (C6H5NO5S) (3) with the simultaneous oxidation of the sulfur atom. On the other hand, the reactions of the gold(I) complex [Au(tpp)Cl] (4) (tpp = triphenylphosphine (Ph3P)) with the thioamides; 2-mercapto-thiazolidine (mtzdH), 2-mercapto-benzothiazole (mbztH) and 5-chloro-2-mercapto-benzothiazole (ClmbztH) in the presence of potassium hydroxide resulted in the formation of the gold(I) complexes of formulae [Au(tpp)(mtzd)] (5), [Au(tpp)(mbzt)] (6) and [Au(tpp)(Clmbzt)] (7) without ligand desulfuration. All complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, far-FT-IR,1H-NMR, spectroscopic techniques and X-Ray crystallography. The electrochemical behavior of 1, 2 and 4-7 complexes and the ligands EtmbzimH, mbztH and mnaH2 was also studied in acetonitrile and DMF using cyclic voltammetry. The results are in support of a mechanism of desulfuration of the ligands by Au(III), involving a first oxidation of S to -SO3-, followed by a C-S bond cleavage. This is also supported by PM6 calculations of bond dissociation energies of the various compounds involved. Complexes 1, 2 and 4-7 were tested for in vitro cytotoxicity against leiomyosarcoma cells and the results are discussed in relation with the geometry of the complexes and compared with those of cisplatin and other metals. Complexes 1 and 5 showed higher activity than that of cisplatin, while HAuCl4 was inactive against sarcoma cells.

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