A ferrocene tagged novel organic moiety:Synthesis, crystal structure and electrochemical aspects

Reaction of 2-(2-aminoethyl)pyridine (L) with ferrocenecarboxaldehyde (FCAL) in toluene gives rise to LH, the 1:1 Schiff base condensate of L and FCAL. Reduction of LH with NaBH4 in methanol and subsequent protonation with stoichiometric proportion of hydrochloric acid enables to isolate the ferrocene bearing organometallic moiety, [LH2]Cl.H 2O. Replacement of the counter anion, chloride, by hexafluorophosphate in acetone afforded the target ferrocene appended organometallic precursor, [LH2]PF6.H2O with satisfactory yield. [LH2]PF6.H2O is characterized by C, H and N microanalyses, FT-IR, 1H NMR and ESI-MS and cyclic voltammetry. The X-ray crystal structure of it has also been determined. The structure reveals that it is centrosymmetric (space group P21/c).