Thermal and thermo-oxidative stability of a series of palladium and platinum ferrocenylamine sulfides and selenides

Ferrocenylamine complexes have found increasing applications in the fields of catalysis in various organic reactions, industry, medical treatments and enzyme–activity determinations. Therefore, information related to the thermal and thermo-oxidative stability of these compounds is important for such applications; however, this information is currently limited. Twenty previously prepared palladium and platinum ferrocenylamine complexes with systematic structural variations are examined for their thermal (under nitrogen) and thermo-oxidation stability (under atmospheric air) using thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTG), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. Degradation products are identified by comparing thermogravimetric analysis and theoretical calculations. Structure–stability studies are also discussed. The results show that all the compounds have high thermal and thermo-oxidative stabilities of up to 265 and 173 °C, respectively. Electron–donating substituents enhance the thermal and thermo-oxidative stabilities of the palladium complexes (t-Bu, selenide electrophiles and dielectrophiles), while those with destabilizing effects are aromatic substituents (Ph and tolyl). Most platinum ferrocenylamine sulfides and selenides show higher thermal and thermo-oxidative stabilities than their corresponding palladium analogs. All the prepared compounds show high thermal and thermo-oxidative stability which reinforces their catalytic and industrial applications. However, their thermal stability is higher than their thermo-oxidative stability.