A mononuclear Ni(II) complex ([(6-Ph
2TPA)Ni(PhC(O)C(OH)C(O)Ph)]ClO
4 (
1)), supported by the 6-Ph
2TPA chelateligand (6-Ph
2TPA =
N,
N-bis((6-phenyl-2-pyridyl)methyl)-
N-((2-pyridyl)methyl)amine) and containing a
cis-
-keto-enolate ligand having a C2 hydroxyl substituent, undergoes reaction with O
2 to produce a Ni(II) monobenzoatecomplex ([(6-Ph
2TPA)Ni(O
2CPh)]ClO
4 (
3)), CO, benzil (PhC(O)C(O)Ph), benzoic acid, and other minor unidentifiedphenyl-containing products. Complex
3 has been identified through independent synthesis and was characterizedby X-ray crystallography,
1H NMR, FAB-MS, FTIR, and elemental analysis. A series of
cis-
-keto-enolate Ni(II)complexes supported by the 6-Ph
2TPA ligand ([(6-Ph
2TPA)Ni(PhC(O)CHC(O)Ph)]ClO
4 (
4), [(6-Ph
2TPA)Ni(CH
3C(O)CHC(O)CH
3)]ClO
4 (
5), and [(6-Ph
2TPA)Ni(PhC(O)CHC(O)C(O)Ph) (
6)) have been prepared and characterized.While these complexes exhibit structural and/or spectroscopic similarity to
1, all are unreactive with O
2. The resultsof this study are discussed in terms of relevance to Ni(II)-containing acireductone dioxygenase enzymes, as wellas in the context of recently reported cofactor-free, quercetin, and
-diketone dioxygenases.