Synthesis and characterization of C2-symmetric bis(carboxamide) pincer ligands

Tridentate bis(carboxamide) pincers are key ligands used in catalysis, investigational medicinal inorganic compounds, and materials science. This study examined the atropisomerism of a group of bis(carboxamide) pincers with C2 symmetry to elucidate their physical, chemical, and structural behaviour, paving the way for the application of their metal complexes in different fields. One of the five compounds structurally elucidated by X-ray crystallography, 1c, has a pair of intramolecularly constrained isoquinoline ring substituents and crystallized enantiomerically pure in a chiral Sohncke space group. PM6 calculations of the 3-D potential energy surface for the main atropisomerisation reaction coordinate of 1c indicated that the lowest-energy conformer (atropisomer) has the isoquinoline rings canted out-of-plane by almost +30° and −30° relative to the central pyridine ring. The X-ray structure of 1c is located close to this energy minimum. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy on bulk solid samples confirmed the presence of an excess population of one enantiomer (C2-symmetric atropisomer), most notably for compounds 1c, 1e, and 1f. CD spectra could be recorded for all compounds in solution, similarly reflecting an excess population of one atropisomer. The experimental spectra were confirmed by TD-DFT simulations at the CAM-B3LYP/def2-tzvp level of theory. We conclude that the present group of ligands are worthy of further investigation as chelating agents for metal ions with applications in chiral catalysis or biology.