Dinickel complexes with anthyridine-based ligands.

Two new dinickel complexes with anthyridine-based ligands, 5-phenyl-2,8-bis(2-pyridinyl)-1,9,10-anthyridine () and 5-phenyl-2,8-bis(6'-bipyridinyl)-1,9,10-anthyridine (), are reported. Complexation of Ni(OAc)2 with and in trifluoroacetic acid provided the corresponding dinickel complexes [{Ni2()(H2O)6(CF3COO)2}(CF3COO)2] () and [Ni2()(CF3COO)4(H2O)] (), respectively. Both complexes were characterized by spectroscopic methods and further confirmed by X-ray crystallography. Structural analyses of and revealed the NiNi distances in the complexes to be 5.4086(6) and 5.0138(7) Å, respectively. The catalytic activities of complexes and toward the reduction of carboxylic acids were evaluated. It appears that complex shows a good catalytic activity toward the reduction of carboxylates into the corresponding alcohols by diphenylsilane.