The synthesis and characterisation of ruthenium(II) complexes with 2-amidobenzimidazoles are reported. The complexes RuCl2(DMSO)4 and RuCl2(PPh3) react with 2-(acetamido)benzimidazole (AB) and 2-(benzamido)benzimidazole (BB) it acetone to give products of the type [Ru(L)2(N−O)2]Cl2 [L=DMSO, PPh3, N−O=AB, BB). The displacement reactions are faster in the case of methyl (AB) than phenyl (BB) substituted ligands. The ligands are bifunctional chelating agents coordinating through the tertiary nitrogen of benzimidazole ring and amide oxygen. The complexes are characterised based on their elemental analysis, conductivity data, infrared,1H and31P nmr spectra. Acis-geometry is proposed for all the complexes reported.
