Design, Identification, and Evolution of a Surface Ruthenium(II/III) Single Site for CO Activation

RuII compounds are widely used in catalysis, photocatalysis, and medical applications. They are usually obtained in a reductive environment as molecular O2 can oxidize RuII to RuIII and RuIV . Here we report the design, identification and evolution of an air-stable surface [bipy-RuII (CO)2 Cl2 ] site that is covalently mounted onto a polyphenylene framework. Such a RuII site was obtained by reduction of [bipy-RuIII Cl4 ]- with simultaneous ligand exchange from Cl- to CO. This structural evolution was witnessed by a combination of in situ X-ray and infrared spectroscopy studies. The [bipy-RuII (CO)2 Cl2 ] site enables oxidation of CO with a turnover frequency of 0.73×10-2  s-1 at 462 K, while the RuIII site is completely inert. This work contributes to the study of structure-activity relationship by demonstrating a practical control over both geometric and electronic structures of single-site catalysts at molecular level.