Crystal Structures and Spectral Aspects of Mixed Ligand Transition Metal Chelates Derived from Aldehyde based ONS Donor Thiosemicarbazones

Thiosemicarbazones have emerged as an important class of ligands over a period of time, for a variety of reasons, such as variable donor properties, structural diversity and biological applications. Interesting as the coordination chemistry may be, the driving force for the study of these ligands has undoubtedly been their biological properties and the majority of the 3000 or so publications on thiosemicarbazones since 2000 have alluded to this feature. Thiosemicarbazones with potential donor atoms in their structural skeleton fascinate coordination chemists with their versatile chelating behavior. The thiosemicarbazones of aromatic aldehydes and ketones form stable chelates with transition metal cations by utilizing both their sulfur and azomethine nitrogen as donor atoms. They have been shown to possess a diverse range of biological activities including anticancer, antitumor, antibacterial, antiviral, antimalarial and antifungal properties owing to their ability to diffuse through the semipermeable membrane of the cell lines. The enhanced effect may be attributed to the increased lipophilicity of the metal complexes compared to the ligand alone.

Design Of Metal Architectures: Synthesis And Study Of Their Photophysical And Biomolecular Recognition Properties

Design and study of molecular receptors capable of mimicking natural processes has found applications in basic research as well as in the development of potentially useful technologies. Of the various receptors reported, the cyclophanes are known to encapsulate guest molecules in their cavity utilizing various non–covalent interactions resulting in significant changes in their optical properties. This unique property of the cyclophanes has been widely exploited for the development of selective and sensitive probes for a variety of guest molecules including complex biomolecules. Further, the incorporation of metal centres into these systems added new possibilities for designing receptors such as the metallocyclophanes and transition metal complexes, which can target a large variety of Lewis basic functional groups that act as selective synthetic receptors. The ligands that form complexes with the metal ions, and are capable of further binding to Lewis-basic substrates through open coordination sites present in various biomolecules are particularly important as biomolecular receptors. In this context, we synthesized a few anthracene and acridine based metal complexes and novel metallocyclophanes and have investigated their photophysical and biomolecular recognition properties.

Formation of carbon-encapsulated metallic nano-particles from metal acetylides by electron beam irradiation

Transition metal acetylides, MC2 (M=Fe, Co and Ni), exhibit ferromagnetic behavior of which TC is characteristic of their size and structure. CoC2 synthesized in anhydrous condition exhibited cubic structure with disordered C2− 2 orientation. Once being exposed to water (or air), the particles behave ferromagnetically due to the lengthening of the Co–Co distance by the coordination of water molecules to Co2+ cations. Heating of these particles induces segregation of metallic cores with carbon mantles. Electron beam or 193 nm laser beam can produce nanoparticles with metallic cores covered with carbon mantles

Studies on Transition Metal Chelates of some Tridentate Aroylhydrazones

The ability of aroylhydrazones to bind with transition metals is a developing area of research interest and the coordinating properties of hydrazones can be tuned by the appropriate choice of parent aldehyde or ketone and the hydrazide. So in the present work we selected four different aroylhydrazones as principal ligands. Introduction of heterocyclic bases like 1,10-phenanthroline, 2,2′-bipyridine, 3-picoline and pyridine leads to the syntheses of mixed ligand metal chelates which can cause different bonding modes, spectral properties and geometries in coordination compounds. The importance of aroylhydrazones and their complexes in various fields and their interesting coordinating properties stimulate our interest in the investigation of transition metal chelates with four different aroylhydrazones. The aroylhydrazones selected are 4-benzyloxy-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde-4-nitrobenzoylhydrazone dimethylformamide monosolvate, 5-bromo-2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde nicotinoylhydrazone dihydrate methanol monosolvate, 4-diethylamino-2- hydroxybenzaldehyde nicotinoylhydrazone monohydrate and 2-benzoylpyridine- 4-nitrobenzoylhydrazone. The selection of 4-benzyloxy-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde- 4-nitrobenzoylhydrazone was based on the idea of developing ligands having D-π-A general structure, so that the proligand and metal complexes exhibit NLO activity. Hence it is interesting to explore the coordinating capabilities of the synthesized hydrazones and to study the NLO activity of hydrazones and some of the metal complexes.

Catalysis by Modified Pillared Clays and Porous Clay Heterostructures

In this venture three distinct class of catalysts such as, pillared clays and transition metal loaded pillared clays , porous clay heterostructures and their transition metal loaded analogues and DTP supported on porous clay heterostructures etc. were prepared and characterized by various physico chemical methods. The catalytic activities of prepared catalysts were comparatively evaluated for the industrially important alkylation, acetalization and oxidation reactions.The general conclusions drawn from the present investigation are  Zirconium, iron - aluminium pillared clays were synthesized by ion exchange method and zirconium-silicon porous heterostructures were Summary and conclusions 259 prepared by intergallery template method. Transition metals were loaded in PILCs and PCHs by wet impregnation method.  Textural and acidic properties of the clays were modified by pillaring and post pillaring modifications.  The shift in 2θ value to lower range and increase in d (001) spacing indicate the success of pillaring process.  Surface area, pore volume, average pore size etc. increased dramatically as a result of pillaring process.  Porous clay heterostructures have higher surface area, pore volume, average pore diameter and narrow pore size distribution than that of pillared clays.  The IR spectrum of PILCs and PCHs are in accordance with literature without much variation compared to parent montmorillonite which indicate that basic clay structure is retained even after modification.  The silicon NMR of PCHs materials have intense peaks corresponding to Q4 environment which indicate that mesoporous silica is incorporated between clay layers.  Thermo gravimetric analysis showed that thermal stability is improved after the pillaring process. PCH materials have higher thermal stability than PILCs.  In metal loaded pillared clays, up to 5% metal species were uniformly dispersed (with the exception of Ni) as evident from XRD and TPR analysis. Chapter 9 260  Impregnation of transition metals in PILCs and PCHs enhanced acidity of catalysts as evident from TPD of ammonia and cumene cracking reactions.  For porous clay heterostructures the acidic sites have major contribution from weak and medium acid sites which can be related to the Bronsted sites as evident from TPD of ammonia.  Pillared clays got more Lewis acidity than PCHs as inferred from α- methyl styrene selectivity in cumene cracking reaction.  SEM images show that layer structure is preserved even after modification. Worm hole like morphology is observed in TEM image of PCHs materials  In ZrSiPCHS, Zr exists as Zr 4+ and is incorporated to silica pillars in the intergallary of clay layers as evident from XPS analysis.  In copper loaded zirconium pillared clays, copper exists as isolated species with +2 oxidation state at lower loading. At higher loading, Cu exists as clusters as evident from reduction peak at higher temperatures in TPR.  In vanadium incorporated PILCs and PCHs, vanadium exist as isolated V5+ in tetrahedral coordination which is confirmed from TPR and UVVis DRS analysis.  In cobalt loaded PCHs, cobalt exists as CoO with 2+ oxidation state as confirmed from XPS.  Cerium incorporated iron aluminium pillared clay was found to be the best catalyst for the hydroxylation of phenol in aqueous media due to the additional surface area provided by ceria mesopores and its redox properties. Summary and conclusions 261  Cobalt loaded zirconium porous clay heterostructures were found to be promising catalyst for the tertiary butylation of phenol due to higher surface area and acidic properties.  Copper loaded pillared clays were found to be good catalyst for the direct hydroxylation of benzene to phenol.  Vanadium loaded PCHs catalysts were found to be efficient catalysts for oxidation of benzyl alcohol.  DTP was firmly fixed on the mesoporous channels of PCHs by Direct method and functionalization method.  DTP supported PCHs catalyst were found to be good catalyst for acetalization of cyclohexanone with more than 90% conversion.

Ferrocene-Based Pyridylphosphine Ligands – Coordination Chemistry of Group 10, 11 and 12 Metals

English: The present thesis describes the synthesis of 1,1’-ferrocendiyl-based pyridylphosphine ligands, the exploration of their fundamental coordination chemistry and preliminary experiments with selected complexes aimed at potential applications. One main aspect is the synthesis of the bidentate ferrocene-based pyridylphosphine ligands 1-(Pyrid-2-yl)-1’-diphenylphosphinoferrocene, 1-(Pyrid-3-yl)-1’-diphenylphosphinoferrocene and 1-[(Pyrid-2-yl)methyl]-1’-diphenylphosphinoferrocene. A specific feature of these ligands is the ball-bearing like flexibility of the ferrocenebased backbone. An additional flexibility element is the rotation around the C–C single bonds. Consequently, the donor atoms can realise a wide range of positions with respect to each other and are therefore able to adapt to the coordination requirements of different metal centres. The flexibility of the ligand also plays a role in another key aspect of this work, which concerns the coordination mode, i. e. bridging vs. chelating. In addition to the flexibility, also the position of the donor atoms to each other is important. This is largely affected by the position of the pyridyl nitrogen (pyrid-2-yl vs. pyrid-3-yl) and the methylen group in 1-[(Pyrid-2-yl)methyl]-1’-diphenylphosphinoferrocene. Another interesting point is the combination of a soft phosphorus donor atom with a harder nitrogen donor atom, according to the HSAB principle. This combination generates a unique binding profile, since the pi-acceptor character of the P site is able to stabilise a metal centre in a low oxidation state, while the nitrogen sigma-donor ability can make the metal more susceptible to oxidative addition reactions. A P,N-donor combination can afford hemilabile binding profiles, which would be ideal for catalysis. Beyond 1,2-substituted ferrocene derivatives, which are quite successful in catalytic applications, 1,1’-derivatives are rather underrepresented. While a low-yield synthetic pathway to 1-(Pyrid-2-yl)-1’-diphenylphosphinoferrocene was already described in the literature [I. R. Butler, Organometallics 1992, 11, 74.], it was possible to find a new, improved and simplified synthetic pathway. Both other ligands were unknown prior to this work. Satisfactory results in the synthesis of 1-(Pyrid-3-yl)-1’-diphenylphosphinoferrocene could be achieved by working in analogy to the new synthetic procedure for 1-(Pyrid-2-yl)-1’-diphenylphosphinoferrocene. The synthesis of 1-[(Pyrid-2-yl)methyl]-1’-diphenylphosphinoferrocene has been handled by the group of Prof. Petr Stepnicka from Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. The synthesis of tridentate ligands with an analogous heterodentate arrangement, was investigated briefly as a sideline of this study. The major part of this thesis deals with the fundamental coordination chemistry towards transition metals of the groups 10, 11 and 12. Due to the well-established catalytic properties of analogous palladium complexes, the coordination chemistry towards palladium (group 10) is of particular interest. The metals zinc and cadmium (group 12) are also of substantial importance because they are redox-inert in their divalent state. This is relevant in view of electrochemical investigations concerning the utilisation of the ligands as molecular redox sensors. Also mercury and the monovalent metals silver and gold (group 11) are included because of their rich coordination chemistry. It is essential to answer questions concerning aspects of the ligands’ coordination mode bearing in mind the HSAB principle.

Theoretical study of magnetism, structure and chemical order in transition-metal alloy clusters

Research on transition-metal nanoalloy clusters composed of a few atoms is fascinating by their unusual properties due to the interplay among the structure, chemical order and magnetism. Such nanoalloy clusters, can be used to construct nanometer devices for technological applications by manipulating their remarkable magnetic, chemical and optical properties. Determining the nanoscopic features exhibited by the magnetic alloy clusters signifies the need for a systematic global and local exploration of their potential-energy surface in order to identify all the relevant energetically low-lying magnetic isomers. In this thesis the sampling of the potential-energy surface has been performed by employing the state-of-the-art spin-polarized density-functional theory in combination with graph theory and the basin-hopping global optimization techniques. This combination is vital for a quantitative analysis of the quantum mechanical energetics. The first approach, i.e., spin-polarized density-functional theory together with the graph theory method, is applied to study the Fe$_m$Rh$_n$ and Co$_m$Pd$_n$ clusters having $N = m+n \leq 8$ atoms. We carried out a thorough and systematic sampling of the potential-energy surface by taking into account all possible initial cluster topologies, all different distributions of the two kinds of atoms within the cluster, the entire concentration range between the pure limits, and different initial magnetic configurations such as ferro- and anti-ferromagnetic coupling. The remarkable magnetic properties shown by FeRh and CoPd nanoclusters are attributed to the extremely reduced coordination number together with the charge transfer from 3$d$ to 4$d$ elements. The second approach, i.e., spin-polarized density-functional theory together with the basin-hopping method is applied to study the small Fe$_6$, Fe$_3$Rh$_3$ and Rh$_6$ and the larger Fe$_{13}$, Fe$_6$Rh$_7$ and Rh$_{13}$ clusters as illustrative benchmark systems. This method is able to identify the true ground-state structures of Fe$_6$ and Fe$_3$Rh$_3$ which were not obtained by using the first approach. However, both approaches predict a similar cluster for the ground-state of Rh$_6$. Moreover, the computational time taken by this approach is found to be significantly lower than the first approach. The ground-state structure of Fe$_{13}$ cluster is found to be an icosahedral structure, whereas Rh$_{13}$ and Fe$_6$Rh$_7$ isomers relax into cage-like and layered-like structures, respectively. All the clusters display a remarkable variety of structural and magnetic behaviors. It is observed that the isomers having similar shape with small distortion with respect to each other can exhibit quite different magnetic moments. This has been interpreted as a probable artifact of spin-rotational symmetry breaking introduced by the spin-polarized GGA. The possibility of combining the spin-polarized density-functional theory with some other global optimization techniques such as minima-hopping method could be the next step in this direction. This combination is expected to be an ideal sampling approach having the advantage of avoiding efficiently the search over irrelevant regions of the potential energy surface.

Bioinspired iron and manganese catalysts for the effective and selective oxidation of alkanes and alkenes

La gran eficiència, selectivitat i les condicions suaus exhibides per les reaccions que tenen lloc al centre actiu de les metal·looxigenases són la font d'inspiració per la present dissertació. Amb l'objectiu de dissenyar catalitzadors d'oxidació eficients hem fet ús de dues estratègies: la primera consisteix en el disseny de complexos amb baix pes molecular inspirats en aspectes estructurals de la primera esfera de coordinació del centre metàl·lic d'enzims de ferro i de manganès. Aquests complexos s'han estudiat com a catalitzadors en l'oxidació selectiva d'alcans i d'alquens fent servir oxidants "verds" com ara l'H2O2. La segona estratègia està basada en l'ús de la química supramolecular per tal de desenvolupar estructures moleculars auto-acoblades amb la forma i les propietats químiques desitjades. Concretament, la construcció de nanocontenidors amb un catalitzador d'oxidació incrustat a la seva estructura ens permetria dur a terme reaccions més selectives, tal com passa en les reaccions catalitzades per enzims.

New mono- and dinuclear ruthenium complexes containing the 3,5-bis(2-pyridyl)pyrazole ligand. Synthesis, characterization and applications

Se han sintetizado dos nuevos complejos mononucleares de Ru, con formula [RuCl2(Hbpp)(dmso)2], a partir de la reacción entre [RuCl2(dmso)4] y Hbpp (3,5-bis(2-piridil)pirazola). El hecho que sólo tres de los seis posibles estereoisómeros se obtengan a partir de esta reacción, se ha racionalizado en base a factores estructurales y electrónicos. Estos complejos se han caracterizado de forma estructural, espectroscópica y electroquímica. En acetonitrilo en medio básico, el isómero trans,cis-[RuCl2(Hbpp)(dmso)2] da lugar a procesos de isomerización de enlace de un ligando dmso cuando el Ru(II) se oxida a Ru(III). Las constantes termodinámicas y cinéticas para el proceso se han determinado por voltametria cíclica. La irradiación de trans,cis-[RuCl2(Hbpp)(dmso)2] y cis(out),cis-[RuCl2(Hbpp)(dmso)2] con luz UV o solar da lugar a reacciones de fotosustitución de un ligando dmso por una molécula de acetonitrilo para dar un nuevo compuesto el cual ha sido caracterizado en solución por técnicas espectroscópicas y electroquímicas. Ambos complejos resultan catalizadores útiles en la transferencia de hidrógeno de isopropanol a acetofenona, obteniéndose 1-feniletanol como único producto y un 42.1% de conversión (36.1 ciclos metálicos) a 80ºC con el isómero trans,cis-[RuCl2(Hbpp)(dmso)2], que resulta significativamente más eficaz que el complejo cis(out),cis-[RuCl2(Hbpp)(dmso)2]. La reacción de cis(out),cis-[RuCl2(Hbpp)(dmso)2] con trpy (2,2':6',2"-terpiridina) da lugar a los dos isómeros geométricos del complejo [Ru(Hbpp)(trpy)(Cl)]+, el in y el out. Estos complejos se han aislado y caracterizado por técnicas estructurales, espectroscópicas y electroquímicas. Estos cloro complejos han sido utilizados como precursores para la síntesis de los complejos análogos con ligandos aqua (in,out-[Ru(Hbpp)(trpy)(H2O)]2+) y piridina (in,out-[Ru(Hbpp)(trpy)(py)]2+), los cuales también han sido aislados y caracterizados. Las propiedades ácido-base de los aqua complejos, y del complejo out-py se han estudiado detalladamente por voltametria cíclica y mediante valoraciones espectrofotométricas ácido-base. El tratamiento matemático de los datos así obtenidos nos ha permitido determinar los valores de pKa para los distintos equilibrios de protonación de los complejos en los estados de oxidación II y III. El complejo out-aqua ha demostrado ser un buen catalizador para la oxidación electroquímica del alcohol benzílico, presumiblemente a benzaldehido. La constante de velocidad de segundo orden para el proceso ha sido determinada como 17.1 M-1 s-1, por simulación matemática. El dímero con un puente cloro, [Ru2Cl(bpp)(trpy)2]2+ ha sido preparado por dos rutas sintéticas diferentes. El dímero análogo con un puente acetato se ha obtenido por reacción del cloro dímero con un exceso de acetato sódico. El dímero con dos ligandos aqua [Ru2(bpp)(trpy)2(OH2)2]3+ puede obtenerse por hidrólisis ácida del complejo con un acetato puente o por hidrólisis básica del complejo con un puente cloro. Estos complejos han sido caracterizados por técnicas estructurales, espectroscópicas y electroquímicas. Las soluciones del dímero con dos ligandos aqua en medio ácido resultan inestables a la coordinación de aniones de la solución con el tiempo. Las propiedades ácido-base del dímero con dos aguas coordinadas han sido estudiadas por voltametria cíclica y mediante experimentos de electrólisis a potencial controlado. El pKa para la desprotonación de uno de los ligandos aqua ha sido determinado mediante una valoración espectrofotométrica ácido-base como 6.7. Este valor tan bajo de pKa se atribuye a la formación de la entidad {Ru2O2H3}, favorable termodinámicamente. Los espectros UV-vis para los distintos estados de oxidación del aqua dímero, de RuIIRuII a RuIIIRuIV, han sido obtenidos por oxidación química y electroquímica del complejo. Se han llevado a cabo estudios cinéticos de la oxidación, paso a paso, de RuII,II a RuIV,IV , y se han determinado las constantes de oxidación de segundo orden para los distintos procesos de oxidación. La capacidad del aqua dímero en la oxidación del agua a oxígeno molecular ha sido investigada en solución homogénea utilizando CeIV como oxidante. La evolución de oxígeno se ha demostrado por cromatografia de gases. Se ha obtenido una eficiencia del 73% y 18.6 ciclos catalíticos, cuando 1.83 x 10-6 moles de dímero se han mezclado con un exceso de 100 equivalentes de cerio. El dímero con dos aguas cataliza también la oxidación del agua de forma heterogénea, con el complejo adsorbido sobre una membrana de nafion, aunque la eficiencia es menor. Se ha propuesto un mecanismo intramolecular para la reacción de oxidación del agua. Consiste en la oxidación a 4 electrones del dímero, de RuII,II a RuIV,IV, el cual reacciona con el agua para formar oxígeno y revierte nuevamente al estado de oxidación II,II. Este modelo es consistente con estudios catalíticos de la evolución de oxígeno en función de las concentraciones de cerio y catalizador, llevados a cabo en solución ácida homogénea, que demuestran que la oxidación a 4 electrones del agua se encuentra catalizada por una sola molécula de complejo bajo concentraciones elevadas de cerio. La constante de pseudo-primer-orden para la evolución de oxígeno tiene un valor de 1.4 x 10-2 s-1, que es uno de los valores de constante más elevados obtenidos hasta la fecha. Desafortunadamente, el aqua dímero se desactiva durante el proceso de catálisis dando lugar a una especie naranja, la cual estamos actualmente tratando de caracterizar.

New Ruthenium complexes containing N, P and S-donor type of ligands: coordination chemistry, characterization and application to asymetric and non-asymetric catalysis

Síntesi de nous complexos de Ruteni amb lligands no quirals que tenen per fórmula [Ru(phen)([9]aneS3)X] (on X = H2O, py i MeCN). Caracterització espectroscòpica electroquímica i estructural d'aquesta família de complexos. Estudi de les seves propietats catalítiques en front a l'oxidació de substrats orgànics com l'alcohol benzílic en reaccions d'electrocatàlisi. Avaluació cinètica dels mecanismes de substitució entre els complexos Ru-py i Ru-MeCN. Generació d'un interruptor molecular foto-induït. Síntesi de nous complexos quirals de Ru atropoisomèricament purs amb lligands oxazolínics que tenen per fórmula [Ru(trpy)(Ph-box-R)X] on (X = Cl, H2O, py, MeCN, 2-OH-py). Caracterització estructural exhaustiva en estat sòlid (Raig-X) en solució (RMN) i en fase gas (càlculs DFT). Avaluació de la seva activitat catalítica en reaccions asimmetriques d'epoxidació de substrats proquirals. Síntesi de nous lligands polipiridílics quirals amb simetria C3. Estudi de la seva química de coordinació i avaluació de la seva activitat catalítica en reaccions asimmetriques d'oxidació i reducció.

Accumulated metal speciation in earthworm populations with multi-generational exposure to metalliferous soils: cell fractionation and high energy synchrotron analyses

Predicting metal bioaccumulation and toxicity in soil organisms is complicated by site-specific biotic and abiotic parameters. In this study we exploited tissue fractionation and digestion techniques, combined with X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), to investigate the whole-body and subcellular distributions, ligand affinities, and coordination chemistry of accumulated Pb and Zn in field populations of the epigeic earthworm Lumbricus rubellus inhabiting three contrasting metalliferous and two unpolluted soils. Our main findings were (i) earthworms were resident in soils with concentrations of Pb and Zn ranging from 1200 to 27 000 mg kg(-1) and 200 to 34 000 mg kg(-1), respectively; (ii) Pb and Zn primarily accumulated in the posterior alimentary canal in nonsoluble subcellular fractions of earthworms; (iii) site-specific differences in the tissue and subcellular partitioning profiles of populations were observed, with earthworms from a calcareous site partitioning proportionally more Pb to their anterior body segments and Zn to the chloragosome-rich subcellular fraction than their acidic-soil inhabiting counterparts; (iv) XAS indicated that the interpopulation differences in metal partitioning between organs were not accompanied by qualitative differences in ligand-binding speciation, because crystalline phosphate-containing pyromorphite was a predominant chemical species in the whole-worm tissues of all mine soil residents. Differences in metal (Pb, Zn) partitioning at both organ and cellular levels displayed by field populations with protracted histories of metal exposures may reflect their innate ecophysiological responses to essential edaphic variables, such as Ca2+ status. These observations are highly significant in the challenging exercise of interpreting holistic biomarker data delivered by "omic" technologies.

Solid-state interconversions of coordination networks and hydrogen-bonded salts

Thermal or chemical treatment of crystalline 4,4-bipyridinium salts of [MCl4]2- (M=Co, Zn, Fe, or Pt) leads to HCl loss and formation of coordination network solids [{MCl2(4,4-bipy)}n]. For M=Co, Zn, and Fe, these solids can also be prepared by mechanochemical means. Their exposure to HCl vapor or the mechanochemical reaction of metal dichlorides with [4,4-H2bipy]Cl2 gives [4,4-H2bipy]2+ salts of [CoCl4]2-, [ZnCl4]2-, and, for the first time, [FeCl4]2-.

Metal complexes of a tetraazacyclophane: solution and molecular modelling studies

An alternative synthetic approach to yield the compound 2,3,5,6,8,9,11,14-octahydrobenzo[1][ 1,4,7,10]tetraazacyclotetradecine (bz[14]N-4) is presented. The protonation constants of bz[14]N-4 and the stability constants of its complexes with Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Pb2+ were determined in H2O at 25degreesC with ionic strength 0.10 mol dm(-3) in KNO3 and they were compared with structurally related macrocycles cyclam (1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane) and cyclen (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane). These studies indicate that only 1 : 1 ( M : L) species are formed in solution, and the ligand exhibits a high affinity for larger ions such as Cd2+ and Pb2+. The X-ray study of [bz[14]N4H3](3+) shows that an inclusion compound with a chloride counter-anion is formed through NH...Cl hydrogen bonds. Spectroscopic data in solution ( electronic and NMR spectra) showed that the macrocycle adopts a planar arrangement upon metal complexation. Molecular mechanics calculations reveal that in spite of the presence of the benzene ring in the macrocyclic framework this ligand can encapsulate metal ions with different stereo-electronic sizes in square planar arrangements. Our results indicate that the presence of the benzene ring in the backbone of the bz[14]N-4 confers a coordination behaviour intermediate between that of cyclam and cyclen.

Anion-directed synthesis of metal-organic frameworks based on 2-picolinate Cu(II) complexes: a ferromagnetic alternating chain and two unprecedented ferromagnetic fish backbone chains

Three new polynuclear copper(II) complexes of 2-picolinic acid (Hpic), {[Cu-2(pic)(3)(H2O)]ClO4}(n) (1), {[Cu-2(pic)(3)(H2O)]BF4}(n) (2), and [Cu-2(pic)3(H2O)(2)(NO3)](n) (3), have been synthesized by reaction of the "metalloligand" [Cu-(pic)(2)] with the corresponding copper(II) salts. The compounds are characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses and variable-temperature magnetic measurements. Compounds 1 and 2 are isomorphous and crystallize in the triclinic system with space group P (1) over bar, while 3 crystallizes in the monoclinic system with space group P2(1)/n. The structural analyses reveal that complexes 1 and 2 are constructed by "fish backbone" chains through syn-anti (equatorial-equatorial) carboxylate bridges, which are linked to one another by syn-anti (equatorial-axial) carboxylate bridges, giving rise to a rectangular grid-like two-dimensional net. Complex 3 is formed by alternating chains of syn-anti carboxylate-bridged copper(II) atoms, which are linked together by strong H bonds involving coordinated nitrate ions and water molecules and uncoordinated oxygen atoms from carboxylate groups. The different coordination ability of the anions along with their involvement in the H-bonding network seems to be responsible for the difference in the final polymeric structures. Variable-temperature (2-300 K) magnetic susceptibility measurement shows the presence of weak ferromagnetic coupling for all three complexes that have been fitted with a fish backbone model developed for 1 and 2 (J = 1.74 and 0.99 cm(-1); J' = 0.19 and 0.25 cm(-1), respectively) and an alternating chain model for 3 (J = 1.19 cm(-1) and J' = 1.19 cm(-1)).

An unprecedented mononuclear double helicate with a square planar metal ion

Reactions of the 1:2 condensate (L) of benzil dihydrazone and 1-methyl-2-imidazole carboxaldehyde with Cd(ClO4)(2)center dot xH(2)O and CdI2 yield [CdL2]( ClO4)(2) (1) and LCdI2 (2), respectively. The yellow ligand L, and its yellow complexes 1 and 2 are characterized by NMR and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Though L contains four N-donor centers, 1 is found to be a four-coordinate double helicate with a square planar Cd(II)N-4 core and 2 a spiral coordination polymer with tetrahedral Cd(II)N2I2 moieties. The bidentate nature of L and the occurrence of the square planar coordination of Cd( II) is explained by DFT calculations. (c) 2007 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.