Coordination behaviour of the new multidentate ligand 3,5-bis(dimethyl-aminomethyl)pyridine with palladium(II) and platinum(II) metal centres

The synthesis of the new potentially tridentate ligand 3,5-bis(dimethylaminomethyl)pyridine (3) is described. Coordination chemistry of this ligand has been investigated with Pd^II and Pt^II precursor compounds. Both a bidentate bridging bonding motif and a monodentate bonding mode is observed. The latter compounds incorporate 3 by coordination through the pyridinic N atom only. The former complexes contain ligand 3 bonded to 2 metal centres by bridging through coordination of one trialkyl N donor atom and the pyridinic N atom. The solid-state structure of a ligand bridged Pd dimer has been elucidated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and corroborates with the solid-state IR data that suggested a trans-PdCl₂ unit was present.