Hi folks.

 

I'm gonna need to make some [Ru(bpy)3]3+ (perchlorate salt). Any good tips on the synthesis and the precipitation/crystallisation of it?

 

Regards

 

Pedro

Inorganic chemistry is not my area of expertise but I'll have a go at trying!

 

Firstly. I'd probably use [Ru(Cl)6]3- as my starting material. Then add bpy to a solution of this. You'll have the advantage of bpy giving a much larger crystal field stabilisation energy and also an entropic advantage since bpy is a bidentate ligand. A co-ordinating solvent such as methanol may actually help as well, but I'm not sure on that part.

 

The difficulty will arise in attempting to get the bpy to react in the correct locations. I would imagine you'd get a mixture of [Ru(bpy)3]3+ aswell as [Ru(bpy)2(Cl)2]+ with the chlorines trans to each other. I cant remember of the top of my head if theres a way to favour getting the tris-bpy over the trans chlroine.