Notes Design and Synthesis of a Sterically Hindered Pyridine and Its Encapsulation of Silver(I) Cation Eric Bosch* Department of Chemistry, Southwest Missouri State University, 901 South National Avenue, Springfield, Missouri 65804-0089 Charles L. Barnes Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211 ReceiVed NoVember 17, 2000 Introduction Metallopyridine complexes are currently of intense interest because of their widespread use in the self-assembly of metallosupramolecular structures, 1,2 oligomers, polymers, and dendrimers. 3 On another level, silver salts are notoriously light- sensitive, and silver halides are often stabilized by complexation to N bases. 4 As the initial stage of our program to prepare light- stable organosilver polymers and dendrimers, we now describe the design and synthesis of a hindered pyridine and its encapsulation of silver(I) cation to form light-stable crystalline material. Experimental Section General. The 1 H NMR spectra were recorded at 200 MHz, and the 13 C NMR spectra were recorded at 50 MHz. Elemental analyses were performed by Atlantic Microlab, Atlanta, GA. Materials. 2,6-Dibromopyridine, mesitylmagnesium bromide, cis- PtCl2(PPh3)2, copper iodide (Aldrich), and silver triflate (Across) were used as received. The solvents tetrahydrofuran and hexane (Fisher) were distilled from calcium hydride, and dichloromethane (Fisher) was distilled from phosphorus pentoxide. The solvents were then stored under an argon atmosphere in Schlenk flasks. Preparation of 2,6-Bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)pyridine, 1. A solu- tion of 3.05 g (12.8 mmol) of 2,6-dibromopyridine and PdCl2(PPh3)3 in dry tetrahydrofuran was cooled to -10 °C in an ice/salt bath, and 28 mL of a 1.0 M solution of mesitylmagnesium bromide in tetrahy- drofuran was added dropwise under an argon atmosphere. The pale yellow solution was allowed to warm to room temperature and then refluxed for 7 h. The solution was cooled, diluted with water, and extracted with ethyl acetate. The extract was washed with water and dried over anhydrous magnesium sulfate, and the solvent was removed under vacuum. The colorless solid was recrystallized from hexane as colorless plates (3.39 g, 84%). mp: 134 °C. 1 H NMR: δ 7.83 (t, J ) 7.7 Hz, 1H), 7.24 (d, J ) 7.7 Hz, 2H), 6.94 (s, 4H), 2.32 (s, 6H), 2.08 (s, 12H). 13 C NMR: δ 159.12, 137.07, 136.18, 135.50, 134.50, 127.08, 121.39, 20.01, 19.11. GC-MS m/z (relative intensity): 314 (M + , 100%), 299 (5). Anal. Calcd for C23H25N: C, 87.57; H, 7.99. Found: C, 87.56; H, 8.02 (see Scheme 1). Preparation of Silver Complex, 2. Silver triflate (70 mg, 0.27 mmol) and 1 (171 mg, 0.54 mmol) were placed in a dry Schlenk tube, and 2 mL of dry dichloromethane was added under an atmosphere of argon. The mixture was stirred until a homogeneous colorless solution was obtained, and then 2 mL of hexane was added. The solution was stirred and gently warmed until a clear homogeneous solution was obtained. The homogeneous solution was placed in a freezer at -5 °C for 1 week during which time large, colorless, cuboid crystals formed (185 mg, 77%). 1 H NMR (200 MHz): δ 8.15 (t, J ) 7.8 Hz, 2H), 7.34 (d, J ) 7.8 Hz, 4H), 6.92 (s, 8H), 2.30 (s, 12H), 1.61 (s, 24H). 13 C NMR (50 MHz): δ 159.61, 140.55, 138.67, 135.36, 134.26, 128.02, 123.6, 20.12, 19.01. Anal. Calcd for C47H50AgF3N2O3S: C, 63.58; H, 5.68; N, 3.15. Found: C, 63.12; H, 5.70; N, 3.15. X-ray Crystallography. Table 1 lists the crystallographic data. Colorless crystals were grown from a chloroform/hexane solution, the solvents were removed, and the crystals were immediately protected from moisture under a layer of silicone oil. A crystal with dimensions 0.45 × 0.35 × 0.15 mm was used to collect 6414 unique reflections with 1.8° < θ <27.1°. The structure was solved by direct methods and refined on F 2 . 5 Hydrogen atoms were included in the calculated positions. Selected interatomic distances and angles are given in Table 2. Results and Discussion We reasoned that encapsulation of the silver cation could be accomplished in a linear bipyridyl complex provided that the (1) Sauvage, J.-P. Transition Metals in Supramolecular Chemistry; Wiley: Chichester, 1999. (2) For a review of the application of higher oligopyridines in metallo- supramolecular chemistry, see Constable, E. C. Prog. Inorg. Chem. 1994, 42, 67. (3) For a review of organometallic dendrimers see Cuadrado, I.; Moran, M.; Casado, C. M.; Alonso, B.; Lasado, J. Coord. Chem. ReV. 1999, 193-195, 395. (4) Several patents describe the stabilization of silver salts by complexation to N bases. See, for example: (a) van den Zegel, M. E.; Kok, P. Eur. Pat. Appl. 201842, 1990. (b) Bloom, S. M.; Sachdev, K. G. U.S. Patent 80440, 1979. (5) (a) Sheldrick, G. M. SHELXS-97: Crystal Structure Solution; University of Gottingen: Gottingen, Germany, 1997. (b) Sheldrick, G. M. SHELXL-97: Crystal Structure Refinement; University of Gottingen: Gottingen, Germany, 1997. Scheme 1. Synthesis of 2,6-Bis(mesityl)pyridine and the Complex with Silver Triflate Table 1. Crystal Data and Structure Refinement for C47H50AgF3N2O3S formula C47 H50 Ag F3 N2 O3 S fw 887.82 temp (K) 173(2) λ (Å) 0.71073 cryst syst monoclinic space group Cc a (Å) 15.9744(10) b (Å) 16.1255(10) c (Å) 17.1825(11)  (deg) 96.1910(10) V (Å 3 ) 4400.3(5) Z 4 F (mg/m 3 ) 1.340 µ (mm -1 ) 0.559 R1 (I > 2θ(I)) 0.0344 wR2 (all data) 0.0848 3234 Inorg. Chem. 2001, 40, 3234-3236 10.1021/ic001305h CCC: $20.00 © 2001 American Chemical Society Published on Web 05/16/2001