EPR study of the low-spin [d3; S=1/2], Jahn-Teller-active, dinitrogen complex of a molybdenum trisamidoamine

The first EPR study of the trisamidoamine complex, [Mo]N-2, where [Mo] = Mo(III)[HIPTN3N] and HIPT = [3,5-(2,4,6-i-Pr-3-C6H2)(2)C6H3NCH2CH2](3)N3-, reveals that this low-spin (S = 1/2) [d(3)] complex exhibits a E-2 state that undergoes a pseudo Jahn-Teller distortion in the adiabatic limit, modified by interactions with the solvent, and analysis gives approximate values of interaction energies. The experiments establish that [ Mo] N2 exhibits the low-spin [e(3)] electronic configuration, not [a(2)e(1)], with the a(z(2)) antibonding orbital substantially higher in energy than the e[xz, yz] orbitals.