Circular dichroism spectra of tetraamminecobalt(III) complexes of amino alcohols

The circular dichroism spectra are reported for tetraamminecobalt(III) complexes with the chiral amino alcohols 2-aminopropan-1-ol, 2- aminobutan-1-ol, 1-aminopropan-2-ol, 2-amino-1-phenyl-ethanol, ψ- ephedrine and ephedrine with the alcohol groups protonated (OH) and deprotonated (O-). The solvent dependence of the chemical shifts of the NH protons was investigated to determine the effects of stereoselective solvation on the circular dichroism, but, in contrast to some other related systems, the chemical shift difference between the two NH2 protons was relatively insensitive to solvent. Consistent with this, the circular dichroism spectra of the tetraphenylborate salts of the deprotonated complexes were found not to be markedly dependent on solvent. Tetraammine-{(-)-ψ-ephedrine)cobalt(III) and tetraammine{(-)- ephedrine}cobalt(III) were found to have the same signs of Cotton effects for the various d-d transitions, whereas bis{(-)-ψ- ephedrine}copper(II) and bis{(-)-ephedrine}copper(II) had opposite signs. This has been explained in terms of different conformer populations in the cobalt(III) and copper(II) systems.