Electronic Communication between Dimolybdenum Units and Ruthenium as a Metal Center linked by Dimethyloxamide

Multi-electron redox reactions are important in chemistry. They are crucial in biochemical reactions such as photosynthesis and in many enzymatic processes in nature. Typical examples can be the electrolysis of water which is a four electron process, nitrogen fixation which is a six electron process. Multi-electron redox reactions are also important in industrial processes, such as the reduction of ores to obtain metals and to produce electrochemical cells. Therefore it is vital to study multi-electron redox reactions. We use dimolybdenum units bridged to a ruthenium atom as a platform to study these reactions by measuring the electron communication between two redox centers to give us insight into the basics of multi-electron redox. Reactions of Mo₂(O₂CCH₃)(DAniF)₃ (DAniF,N,N’-di-p-anisylformamidinate) with dimethyloxamide create a dimolybdenum unit capable of acting as a bidentate ligand to other metal centers in our case a [Ru(bpy)₂]²⁺ core. Our goals are to manipulate the redox chemistry at the Ru center or dimolybdenum unit by which multi-electron redox chemistry may be done. Preliminary information about the electronic communication, measured by determining the separation between the two redox events corresponding to the one electron oxidation of the Mo₂ unit and the Ru center will be presented. DFT calculations that explain the electronic configuration of this compound will also be presented.