Characterization of Group 10-Metal-p-Substituted Phenoxyl Radical Complexes with Schiff Base Ligands.

Methylthiophenoxyl radical plays an important role as the active form of galactose oxidase (GO), which catalyzes oxidation of a primary alcohol to the corresponding aldehyde. Although many metal(II)-phenoxyl radical species have been reported, only a few studies have been reported on the properties of methylthiophenoxyl radical-metal complexes. We have prepared the group 10 metal (Ni, Pd and Pt) complexes of a salen-type ligand with a methylthio group at para-position of the two phenolate moieties and characterized them by X-ray crystal structure analyses and various spectroscopic methods in order to understand the role of the methylthio moiety in phenoxyl radical metal complexes. The corresponding p-methoxy substituted derivatives have been also characterized for comparison. All the one-electron oxidized group 10 metal methylthiophenolate complexes have a relatively localized radical site on one of the two phenolate moieties in comparison to the one-electron oxidized complexes of p-methoxy derivatives and exhibit different properties dependent on the central metal ions.