Phenylcyanamide ligands and their metal complexes

This review examines the various synthetic routes to phenylcyanamide ligands, and their physical characterization by electronic, NMR and IR spectroscopies, crystallography and theoretical methods. While the coordination chemistry of phenylcyanamide ligands is largely unexplored, a significant number of mononuclear coordination complexes of ruthenium, copper and nickel group ions have been synthesized. Topics to be covered are UV-vis, NMR and IR spectroscopy, linkage isomerism and crystallography, and finally cyclic voltammetry. Studies of the remarkable ability of the 1,4-dicyanamidobenzene dianion bridging ligand to mediate antiferromagnetic or resonance exchange in dinuclear ruthenium complexes will be reviewed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.