Ruthenium(III) bis-bidentate Schiff base complexes mediated transfer hydrogenation of imines

The mono anionic bidentate Schiff base ligands of N, O bonding system has been employed to synthesize a series of new stable ruthenium(III) complexes of general composition [RuX(EPh3)(L)2] (where, E = P or As, X = Cl or Br and L = O, N donor of Schiff bases). All the complexes have been fully characterized by elemental analyses, magnetic susceptibility measurements, FT-IR, UV–Vis, EPR and cyclic voltammetric techniques. The catalytic reactivity explored proving these complexes to be efficient in the transfer hydrogenation of imines to amines with moderate to high conversions.