Abstract
NMR chemical shift has been the most versatile marker of chemical structures, by reflecting global and local electronic structures, and is very sensitive to any change within the chemical species. In this work, a set of Ru(II) complexes with the same five ligands and a variable 6 th ligand L (none, H2O, H2S, CH3SH, H2, N2, N2O, NO + , C=CHPh, and CO) is studied, using as the NMR reporter, the phosphorus PA of a coordinated bidentate PAN ligand (PAN = o-diphenylphosphino-N,N'dimethylaniline). The chemical shift of PA in RuCl2(PAN)(PR3)(L) (R = phenyl, p-tolyl or p-FC6H4) was shown to increase as the RuPA bond distance decreases, an observation that was not rationalized. This work, using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, reproduces reasonably well the observed 31 P chemical shifts for these complexes, and the correlation between the shifts and the RuPA bond distance as L varies. An interpretation of this correlation is proposed using a Natural Chemical Shift (NCS) analysis based on the Natural Bonding Orbital (NBO) method. This analysis of the principal components of the chemical shift tensors shows how the s-donating properties of L have a particularly high influence on the phosphine chemical shifts.