Synthesis, characterization and X-ray structure of N-2-pyridylmethylidene-1-phenylethylamine–PdCl2 complexes

The PdCl2 complexes with imines derived from reactions of 2-pyridinealdehyde with (R)-, (S)- and racemic 1-phenylethylamine have been synthesized and characterized by various physico-chemical methods. The (R)-1 and (S)-1 palladium complexes obtained from the (R)- and (S)- ligands were optical antipodes and differed only by the optical rotation sign and opposite circular dichromism spectra. Two crystals I and II resulted from these complexes were studied by the X-ray analysis. The first structure turned out to be racemic (it had the centrosymmetric space group P21/c) while the second one (space group P21) contained the molecules of a single enantiomer. The cis chelate coordination of the organic ligand and almost square-planar coordination geometry was found for both crystals.