This report describes
an isostructural series of dinuclear iron,
cobalt, and nickel complexes bound by a redox-active macrocyclic ligand.
The series spans five redox levels (34–38 e–/cluster core), allowing for a detailed investigation into both the
degree of metal–metal interaction and the extent of ligand-based
redox-activity. Magnetometry, electrochemistry, UV–vis–NIR
absorption spectroscopy, and crystallography were used in conjunction
with DFT computational analyses to extract the electronic structures
of the six homodinuclear complexes. The isoelectronic, 34 e– species [(3PDI2)Fe2(PMe3)2(μ-Cl)](OTf) and [(3PDI2)Co2(PMe3)2(μ-Cl)](OTf)3 exhibit metal–metal single bonds, with varying amounts
of electron density delocalization into the ligand as a function of
the effective nuclear charge of the metal ions. One- and two-electron
reductions of [(3PDI2)Co2(PMe3)2(μ-Cl)](OTf)3 lead to isolable
products, which show successive increases in both the Co–Co
distances and the extent of reduction of the ligand manifold. This
trend results from reduction of a Co–Co σ* orbital, which
was found to be heavily mixed with the redox-active manifold of the 3PDI2 ligand. A similar trend was observed in the
37 and 38 e– dinickel complexes [(3PDI2)Ni2(PMe3)2(μ-Cl)](OTf)2 and [(3PDI2)Ni2(PMe3)2(μ-Cl)](OTf); however, their higher electron
counts lead to high-spin ground states that result from occupation
of a high-lying δ/δ* manifold with significant Ni–NPDI σ* character. This change in ground state configuration
reforms a M–M bonding interaction in the 37 e– complex, but formation of the 38 e– species again
disrupts the M–M bond alongside the transfer of electron density
to the ligand.