Are cis en-en ethylenediamines always chiral in octahedral complexes?

[member 392791]

Hello, I am wondering...

If you have two ethylenediamines (en) oriented in a cis en-en fashion, will they always have an optical isomer? I have not found a case yet where they do, and it would probably save time to assume optically active in an environment presseed for time (such as on a test) Thanks.

 

[DrDu]

I suppose you are talking about octahedral complexes don't you?
Yes, cis bidentate complexes are always chiral,
see e.g.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octahedral_molecular_geometry