Molecular structures and redox properties of oxorhenium(V) ‘3+1’ mixed ligand complexes with heterocyclic thiolates containing nitrogen

Reactions of chloro(3-thiapentane-1,5-dithiolato)oxorhenium(V) [ReO(SSS)Cl] with N-methyl-1H-imidazole-2-thiol (HL¹) and 2-pyrimidinethiol (HL²) have been studied to form ‘3+1’ oxorhenium(V) complexes. In the absence of triethylamine, [Re(SSS)(HL¹)]Cl (1a) was formed, while in the presence of triethylamine [Re(SSS)L¹] (1b) and [Re(SSS)L²] (2) were produced. Molecular structures of complexes 1a and 2 were determined to be distorted square pyramidal by single crystal X-ray analytical method. From cyclic voltammetric studies, furthermore, it was proposed that complexes 1b and 2 are irreversibly oxidized to Re(VI) at around 0.84 and 1.01 V versus Ag/AgNO₃, respectively, and are reduced to Re(IV) at −1.55 and −1.51 V with the dissociation of L¹ or L², followed by the quasi-reversible reductions to Re(III) at around −1.69 V, respectively.