The
precursor PPyrCl
2
(Pyr
= 1-pyrenyl) has been used to prepare a number of novel 1-pyrenylphosphines.
Treatment of PPyrCl
2
with methylmagnesium
chloride has provided the phosphine PPyrMe2, with methanol/triethylamine,
the phosphonite PPyr(OMe)2 (1), with dimethylamine/triethylamine,
the diaminophosphine PPyr(NMe2)2 (2), and with lithium aluminum hydride, PPyrH2 (3). From this primary phosphine, phosphirane PPyr(CH2CH2) (5) has been obtained. The phosphine PPyr2Ph (6) has been synthesized from 1-bromopyrene,
while 1-bromo-2-(1-pyrenyl)benzene has been used to prepare Ph-PyrPhos
(7) and i-Pr-PyrPhos (8). The new phosphines have subsequently been used to obtain the corresponding
[RuCl2(η6-arene)(PPyrR2)] complexes C1
Cym
–C3
Cym
and C6
Cym
–C8
Cym
(arene = p-cymene;
Cym) and C1
Mba
–C3
Mba
and C6
Mba
–C8
Mba
(arene =
methyl benzoate; Mba), which have been fully characterized; the crystal
structures of C1
Cym
, C1
Mba
, C2
Cym
, C2
Mba
, C6
Mba
, and C7
Cym
were determined by X-ray diffraction. Substitution of the
methyl benzoate fragment of complexes C7
Mba
and C8
Mba
by the η6-coordinated pyrenyl group of the coordinated phosphine was
achieved photochemically, giving the tethered complexes C7
Tet
and C8
Tet
. In these two complexes the phosphine acts as a κ1,η6-coordinated ligand, as evidenced by the
X-ray structure of C8
Tet
. The
antineoplastic activities of the piano-stool Ru compounds revealed
that they are highly phosphine dependent and two compounds, namely C1
Cym
and C2
Cym
, exhibit interesting biological properties.