Coordination of the Ester Group – Hydrido‐Rhodium(III) and Iridium(III) Complexes of Orthometallated Diphenylmethylene Glycine Esters [1]

An overview on metal complexes that contain coordinated ester groups is given. A new example has been obtained by oxidative addition of the O′Donnell reagent Ph 2 C=NCH 2 CO 2 R to [(cyclooctene) 2 M Cl] 2 ( M = Rh, Ir) which – in the presence of tricyclohexylphosphine – affords the complexes {(H)(Cl)[C 6 H 11 ) 3 P] 2 M (C 6 H 4 )C(Ph)=NCH 2 CO 2 R}. In these complexes, the chlorido ligand is replaced for the ester group by using AgPF 6 to give {(H)[(C 6 H 11 ) 3 P] 2 M [C 6 H 4 )C(Ph)=NCH 2 CO 2 R} + PF 6 – .