Bipyridine
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Bipyridine is one of the simplest polypyridine compounds. It consists of two pyridine molecules bound with a single bond, and its molecular formula is C10H8N2.
Bipyridine is a white solid, soluble in organic solvents, and slightly soluble in water. There are six isomers of bipyridine; among them, a well-known structure is 2,2'-bipyridine. Its structure is as follows:
2,2'-bipyridine is a chelate ligand and forms a complex with a transition metal ion. The bipyridine-coordinated complexes are typical examples of polypyridine complexes. The bipyridine complexes in which three bipyridine molecules are coordinated to a metal ion are called trisbipyridine complexes, written as [M(bpy)3]n+ (M = metal ion; Cr, Fe, Co, Ru, Rh and so on; bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine). The abbreviation bpy is often pronounced "bippy" by chemists in the lab. The complexes have six-coordinated, octahedral structures and two enantiomers as follows:
The bipyridine complexes exhibit characteristic optical properties. For example, an iron complex, [Fe(bpy)3]2+, exhibits strong absorption attributed to metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) in the visible light region, so this complex is used for the colorimetric analysis of iron ions. A ruthenium complex and a platinum complex exhibit luminescence, and these complexes are expected to be used for luminescent materials.
