Ligand effects on the structures and redox reactivities of copper complexes have been examined using (2-pyridyl)alkylamine derivatives as the supporting ligands, where particular attention has been focused on the effects of thealkyl linker chain length connecting the tertiary amine nitrogen atom and the pyridine nucleus: N-CH
2-Py (Pym)vs N-CH
2CH
2-Py (Pye). X-ray crystallographic analysis of the copper(I) complex of tridentate ligand
PheL
Pym2 [
N,
N-di(2-pyridylmethyl)-2-phenylethylamine] (complex
1) has demonstrated that it possesses a trigonal pyramidal geometryin which a d-
interaction with an
1-binding mode exists between the metal ion and one of the ortho carbons ofthe phenyl ring of the ligand side arm (phenethyl). The result shows sharp contrast to the d-
interaction with an
2-binding mode existing in the copper(I) complex of
PheL
Pye2 {
N,
N-di[2-(2-pyridyl)ethyl]-2-phenethylamine} (complex
2). Such a d-
interaction has been shown to affect the stability of the copper(I) complex in CH
2Cl
2. Oxygenationof copper(I) complex
1 supported by
PheL
Pym2 produces a bis(
-oxo)dicopper(III) complex, also being in sharpcontrast to the case of the copper(I) complex
2 with ligand
PheL
Pye2, which preferentially affords a (
-
2:
2-peroxo)dicopper(II) complex in the reaction with O
2. Such an effect of the alkyl linker chain length of the metal binding sitehas also been found to operate in the RSSR (disulfide)/2RS
- (thiolate) redox system. Namely, ligand
S2,RL
Pym1(di{2-[(alkyl)(2-pyridinylmethyl)amino]ethyl} disulfide) with the methylene linker group (Pym) induced the reductivedisulfide bond cleavage in the reaction with copper(I) ion to give a bis(
-thiolato)dicopper(II) complex, while theligand with the ethylene linker group (Pye),
S2,BnL
Pye1 (di{2-[(benzyl)(2-(2-pyridinyl)ethyl)amino]ethyl} disulfide), gavea disulfide-dicopper(I) complex. These ligand effects in the Cu
2-O
2 and Cu
2-S
2 systems have been discussed bytaking into account the difference in electron-donor ability of the pyridine nucleus between the Pym and Pye ligandsystems.