Synthesis and characterization of low-melting ferrocenyl salts: a study of thermal and photochemical redox reactions

The syntheses of bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonimide N-(ferrocenylmethyl) N,N,N-trimethyl ammonium salt 1 and bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonimide N′,N-bis(ferrocenylmethyl) inmidazolium salt 2 are reported. The compounds show low melting points, 76° and 125 °C, respectively, and were characterized by spectroscopic techniques 1H-NMR, mass spectrometry, FT-IR spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and XRD crystallographic analysis. Cyclic voltammetry results demonstrate that both salts have a quasi-reversible electrochemical behavior, similar to the reversible one shown by ferrocene under the same conditions. In the case of 1, a coupled chemical reaction was detected at slow scan rates after the oxidation. Transient species in the redox processes were investigated using flash photolysis and pulse radiolysis. In both cases, transient spectra of the products were similar to transient spectra observed for ferrocene. The decay kinetics of the oxidized and reduced transients were examined and mechanistic information was obtained. The experimental results show the potential uses of the two complexes as catalytic materials for electrochemical applications.