Submitted by Sibrina Collins / College of Arts and Sciences at Lawrence Technological University on Thu, 05/24/2012 - 10:15
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Research

VIPEr Colleagues,

I think this is an easy one! When you react K2[PtCl4] with DMSO to form cis-[PtCl2(DMSO)2], this should follow an associative mechanism, right? I love this synthesis because it is so simple to do. But, the prep (Inorg. Syn. 2002, 33, pg 189-196), reports 1H NMR data  in CD2Cl2 and CD3NO2. I am curious to know why not simply use CDCl3? Any thoughts? We are reacting it with a ligand to form a Pt complex that may exhibit anti-tumor behavior. I will find out within the next couple of weeks. 

SNC

Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College

Solubility? Maybe the product isn't solubile in chloroform (but CD2Cl2 seems similar to CDCl3 to me). Or to prevent obscuring peaks? But CDCl3 has a pretty small and think peak... Those are my two initial guesses. That or, they just happened to have a lot of extra deuterated nitromethane around or needed to spend down a grant.

Fri, 05/25/2012 - 04:02 Permalink
Chin Hin Leung / Rhode Island College

Based on anecdotal knowledge, DCM is in general better solvent than chloroform--not aware of any good explanation for it! I also wanted to say DCM and nitromethane are less coordinating than chloroform but I don't seem to be able to find a quick ref for that...

Mon, 06/04/2012 - 16:13 Permalink
James McGarrah / Bakersfield College
Speaking from experience cis-PtCl2(DMSO)2 has no solubility in chloroform and very little in methylene chloride. I would characterize the product by IR and/or powder diffraction depending on how much money you have. (it usually takes more than 100 mg of compound to do a powder diffraction) Be warned about IR. Comparing potassium tetrachloroplatinate and DMSO is easy but DMSO will dissolve a NaCl plate.
Tue, 06/05/2012 - 20:01 Permalink
Kyle Grice / DePaul University

You could always make a more soluble (but smelly) Me2S or Et2S adduct: Pt(R2S)2Cl2... (or are they the dimers... i forget). Those are well known and the sulfides are labile.  They'd actually be easier to get out of a reaction mixture than DMSO because they are volatile.  The reactions are pretty well behaved too.  I liked Et2S in grad school because the Pt complexes were less prone to thermal decomposition and could be heated to higher temps.  

Tue, 06/26/2012 - 20:51 Permalink