One of the more famous species in coordination chemistry is the Creutz-Taube complex,

It is named for the two scientists who discovered it and initially studied its properties. The central ligand is pyrazine, a planar six-membered ring with nitrogens at opposite sides.
(a) How can you account for the fact that the complex, which has only neutral ligands, has an odd overall charge? (b) The metal is in a low-spin configuration in both cases. Assuming octahedral coordination, draw the d-orbital energy-level diagram for each metal. (c) In many experiments the two metal ions appear to be in exactly equivalent states. Can you think of a reason that this might appear to be so, recognizing that electrons move very rapidly compared to nuclei?

Transcribed Image Text:

5+ (NH3)5RuNNRu(NH3)5