Scorpionate ligand

These ligands first appeared in journals in 1966 from the then little-known DuPont chemist of Ukrainian descent, Swiatoslaw Trofimenko.

For example, the Tm and tripodal phosphine classes have an equally good claim to be scorpionate ligands.

Since this work a range of ligands have been reported where more than one type of metal binding group is attached to the central atom; these are the heteroscorpionates.

These ligands donate the same number of electrons to the metal, and the donor atoms are arranged in a fac manner covering a face of a polyhedron.

These bulky pyrazolyl borates have proven especially valuable in the preparation of catalysts and models for enzyme active sites.

Utilizing scorpionate ligands in the syntheses of metal catalysts may allow simpler and more accurate methods to be developed.

Trispyrazolylmethane (Tpm) is another class of scorpionate ligands, notable for having identical geometry and very similar coordination chemistry to Tp with only a difference in charge between them.

Hydrotris(pyrazolyl)aluminate (Tpa) complexes have similar coordination geometries to Tp complexes, however Tpa ligands are more reactive due to the weaker Al-N and Al-H bonds, compared to B-N and B-H bonds of Tp ligands, which results in either Tpa ligand transfer, pyrazolate transfer, or hydride transfer with MX2 (M = Mg, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn; X = Cl, Br).