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The Schiff base condensation of 5-methyl-4-imidazole carboxaldehyde, 5Me4ImCHO, and the anion of an amino acid, H2N-CH(R)CO2− (R = -CH3, -CH(CH3)2 and -CH2CH(CH3)2), gives the aldimine tautomer, Im-CH=N-CH(R)CO2−, while that of 5-methylimidazole-4-methanamine, 5MeIm-4-CH2NH2, with a 2-oxocarboxylate anion, R-C(O)-CO2−, gives the isomeric ketimine tautomer, Im-CH2-N=C(R)CO2−. All are isolated as the neutral nickel(II) complexes, NiL2, and are characterized by single crystal structure determination, IR, and positive ion ESI MS. In the cases of the 4 substituted imidazoles, either 5MeIm-4-CHO or 5MeIm-4-CH2NH2, both the aldimine and ketimine complexes are isolated cleanly with no evidence of an equilibrium between the two tautomers under the experimental conditions. The aldimines are blue while the tautomeric ketimines are green. In contrast, for the 2-substituted imidazoles, with either Im-2-CHO or Im-2-CH2NH2, the isolated product from the Schiff base condensation is the ketimine, which in the solid is green, as observed for the 4-isomer. These results suggest that for the 2-substituted imidazoles, there is a facile equilibrium between the aldimine and ketimine tautomers, and that the ketimine form is the thermodynamically favored tautomer. The aldimine tautomers of the 4-substituted imidazoles have three stereogenic centers, the nickel (Δ or Ʌ) and the two alpha carbon atoms (R or S). The observed pair of enantiomers is the ɅRR/ΔSS enantiomeric pair, suggesting that this pair is lower in energy than the others and that this is in general the preferred chiral correlation in these complexes.

The Schiff base reaction of imidazole-2-carboxaldehydes with the anion of alanine, leucine and phenylalanine in the presence of nickel(II) ion gives the neutral NiL2 complexes. The Schiff base ligand, L, binds through an imidazole nitrogen, NIm, the amino acid nitrogen, NAA, and a carboxylate oxygen, O, atom. The two N2O ligands bind to the nickel(II) in a meridional fashion with the NIm and O of each ligand in trans positions. These ligands can exist as the anticipated aldimine, Im − CH = NAA − CH(R) − CO2−, or the ketimine, Im − CH2NAA = C(R) − CO2−, tautomer. Tautomerization of the initially formed aldimine Schiff base results in movement of the hydrogen atom of the alpha carbon of the amino acid to the aldehyde carbon, CAld, atom of the imidazole carboxaldehyde with resultant relocation of the imine double bond in the reverse direction. Ten structures of the structurally unprecedented ketimine tautomer, prepared from imidazole-2-carboxaldehydes and a pyrazole-3-carboxaldehyde, were presented. The structural data supported the formation of the ketimines in each case, while the aldimine tautomer was observed with imidazole-4-carboxaldehydes. A rationale of this can be explained on the basis of charge distribution in the likely intermediate in the tautomerization.

The iron(II) complex cation, 12+, of the 1 : 3 Schiff base condensate of tris(2-aminoethyl)amine (tren) with imidazole-2-carboxaldehyde (H3L1) was reacted with MBF4(M = Na, K, Rb, Cs and NH4). The products were double salts of the formula {[FeH3L1](BF4)2}·MBF4, 1[M(BF4)3]. The complexes have been characterized by EA, IR, X-ray crystallography, and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The resulting complexes crystallize in P-3 and the cations are located at the origin (0, 0, 0) and c/2 (0, 0, 0.5) on the caxis. Six tetrafluoroborate anions surround the cation sites and each binds to the sodium in a monodentate fashion and to the other cations in a bidentate fashion resulting in distorted octahedral and icosahedral complexes, respectively. Disorder is observed in the tetrafluoroborate anion of both 1[Na(BF4)3] and 1[Cs(BF4)3], resulting in two sets of fluorine atom positions (F set A and F set B), but is absent in the ammonium, potassium, and rubidium double salts. The disorder is attributed to coordination number preference and poor size match, respectively. The tetrafluoroborate anions are involved in extensive hydrogen bonding with the imidazole NH and imine CH of the iron complex. The hydrogen bonding arrangements observed with potassium, rubidium, cesium (F set A) and ammonium are almost identical with one another, but are altered in 1[Na(BF4)3] and 1[Cs(BF4)3] (F set B) complexes. These effects are explained on the basis of cation size. The formation of the double salt results in a shift in the spin equilibrium of the parent iron(II) complex from 62% high spin: 38% low spin at 295 K to pure low spin in the double salts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]