Some Properties of 2,2′ -Bipyridine, 1,10-Phenanthroline and Their Metal Complexes

The many recent attempts to detect covalently hydrated imine-ring adducts in equilibrium with the title complexes have been abortive, because there are no anomalous properties which would require explanation, either in terms of these species or of their conjugate bases. For the rare reactions where nucleophilic attack on a carbon atom of an imine ring, coordinated to a metal ion, probably does occur it leads to irreversible chemical change of the ligand.