Novel Octahedral Bis[2‐(1‐aziridinyl)ethanol‐κ 2 N , O ] Complexes of Cobalt(II)

The synthesis and molecular structure of trans ‐{bis[(acetato‐κ O )‐(2‐(1‐aziridinyl)ethanol‐κ 2 N , O )]}cobalt(II) ( 4 ) and cis ‐{bis[chlorido‐(2‐(1‐aziridinyl)ethanol‐κ 2 N , O )]}cobalt(II) ( 5 ) is reported. Both neutral chelate complexes are prepared from the corresponding Co II salt [CoX 2 ; X = OAc ( 1 ), Cl ( 2 )] and 2‐(1‐aziridinyl)ethanol (azolH, 3 ) in dry dichloromethane. A third, ionic complex, cis ‐{bis[aqua‐(2‐(1‐aziridinyl)ethanol‐κ 2 N , O )]}cobalt(II) diacetate ( 6 ) is formed from 4 in the presence of water and could be crystallized from aqueous dichloromethane. In all cases, 2‐(1‐aziridinyl)ethanol is coordinating as bidentate chelate ligand by the nitrogen and oxygen atom of the aziridinyl and hydroxy moiety. After purification, the compounds have been fully characterized using IR spectroscopy and FAB + ‐MS. The single‐crystal X‐ray structure analysis revealed a distorted octahedral geometry for all complexes with either trans ( 4 ) or cis ( 5 , 6 ) configuration.