The N ‐(2‐pyridyl)aminoethanol (L 1 ) was employed as a ligand to form functional complexes with selected d‐block metal ions, including Pd(II), Rh(II), and Cu(II). The resulting complexes PdL 1 2 (OAc) 2 ( 1 ), Rh 2 L 1 2 (OAc) 4 ( 2 ), Cu 2 L 1 2 (OAc) 4 ( 3 ), CuL 1 2 (OAc) 2 ( 4 ), and the nitrate salt L 1 ·NO 3 ( 5 ) were synthesized and characterized using ESI–HRMS, UV–vis, and IR spectroscopy. Elemental analysis was performed for complexes ( 1 – 4 ), whereas 1 H and 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were employed for all diamagnetic compounds. Importantly, the palladium complexes showed high catalytic activity in benchmark C–C coupling Mizoroki–Heck reaction, affording high yields under mild conditions. In parallel, a new decomposition mechanism was observed for complexes with the ligand L 2 (the carbonate analog of L 1 ), which undergoes intramolecular cyclization in the presence of Cu(II) ions, without involving the nitrogen atom from the pyridine ring. The resulting product of this decomposition, 3‐(pyridin‐2‐yl)oxazolidin‐2‐one ( 6 ) was characterized by SCXRD, 1D and 2D NMR techniques ( 1 H, 13 C, 1 H– 1 H COSY, 1 H– 13 C HSQC, 1 H– 13 C HMBC). This observation suggests that symmetric carbonates, like aminoalcohols, can form stable complexes with metal ions, where temperature‐induced triggers initiate the reorganization of the complex.
Strzelec et al. (Tue,) studied this question.