Crystal structure, electrochemical and spectroscopic investigation of mer-tris­[2-(1H-imidazol-2-yl-κN (3))pyrimidine-κN (1)]ruthenium(II) bis­(hexa­fluorido­phosphate) trihydrate

The crystal structure of the title compound, [Ru(C(7)H(6)N(4))(3)](PF(6))(2)·3H(2)O, a novel Ru(II) complex with the bidentate ligand 2-(1H-imidazol-2-yl)pyrimidine, comprises a complex cation in the meridional form exclusively, with a distorted octa­hedral geometry about the ruthenium(II) cation. The Ru—N bonds involving imidazole N atoms are comparatively shorter than the Ru—N bonds from pyrimidine because of the stronger basicity of the imidazole moiety. The three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded network involves all species in the lattice with water mol­ecules inter­acting with both counter-ions and NH hydrogen atoms from the complex. The supra­molecular structure of the crystal also shows that two units of the complex bind strongly through a mutual N—H⋯N bond. The electronic absorption spectrum of the complex displays an asymmetric band at 421 nm, which might point to the presence of two metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) bands. Electrochemical measurements show a quasi-reversible peak referring to the Ru(III)/Ru(II) reduction at 0.87 V versus Ag/AgCl.