Conformational change of a chiral Schiff base Ni(II) complex with a binaphthyl moiety: application of vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy was applied to study the structural change of a Ni(II) complex (denoted by [Ni(II)L]) with a chiral Schiff base ligand, (R)- or (S)-2,2′-bis(salicylideneamino)-1,1′-binaphthyl (denoted by H2L), in solution. The major signals in the mid-IR region were assigned on the basis of comparison with the DFT-calculated spectra. The complex transformed reversibly between the square-planar, tetrahedral and octahedral configurations, depending on solvents and temperature. The observed changes in the VCD peaks accompanying the transformation were analyzed in terms of the conformational change of the chiral ligand with a focus on the twisting angle in the Schiff base backbone and the dihedral angle of the binaphthyl group.