Carboxylate clusters with the M4O4 cubane-like core: pivalate cocrystal containing CoII and NiII

A new stepped tetranuclear copper(II) complex: synthesis, crystal structure and photoluminescence properties

Binuclear and tetranuclear copper(II) complexes are of interest because of their structural, magnetic and photoluminescence properties. Of the several important configurations of tetranuclear copper(II) complexes, there are limited reports on the crystal structures and solid-state photoluminescence properties of `stepped' tetranuclear copper(II) complexes. A new Cu^II complex, namely bis{μ₃-3-[(4-methoxy-2-oxidobenzylidene)amino]propanolato}bis{μ₂-3-[(4-methoxy-2-oxidobenzylidene)amino]propanolato}tetracopper(II), [Cu₄(C₁₁H₁₃NO₃)₄], has been synthesized and characterized using elemental analysis, FT-IR, solid-state UV-Vis spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal structure determination shows that the complex is a stepped tetranuclear structure consisting of two dinuclear [Cu₂(L)₂] units {L is 3-[(4-methoxy-2-oxidobenzylidene)amino]propanolate}. The two terminal Cu^II atoms are four-coordinated in square-planar environments, while the two central Cu^II atoms are five-coordinated in square-pyramidal environments. The solid-state photoluminescence properties of both the complex and 3-[(2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzylidene)amino]propanol (H₂L) have been investigated at room temperature in the visible region. When the complex and H₂L are excited under UV light at 349 nm, the complex displays a strong blue emission at 469 nm and H₂L displays a green emission at 515 nm.

Synthesis, structure and magnetic properties of phenylhydroxamate-based coordination clusters

The strategic recombination of preformed coordination clusters in the presence of polymodal bridging ligands has successfully led to the characterisation of five new compounds of structural and magnetic interest. Indeed using the dinuclear complex [M2(H2O)(piv)4(Hpiv)4] (M = Co, Ni; Hpiv = pivalic acid) as starting material and reacting it with phenylhydroxamic acid (H2pha) has yielded the four tetrametallic coordination clusters [Co4(Hpha)2(piv)6(Hpiv)4] (1), [Ni4(Hpha)2(piv)6(Hpiv)2(DMF)2] (2), [Co4(Hpha)2(piv)6(EtOH)2(H2O)2] (3), [Ni4(Hpha)2(piv)6(EtOH)2(H2O)2] (4) and the hexanuclear complex [Co6(Hpha)4(piv)8(EtOH)2]·EtOH (5). All the compounds have been structurally characterised revealing a particular binding mode for the hydroxamate ligand. The study of their magnetic properties has been performed and the modelling of these properties has been done using the appropriate hamiltonians for each compound. The experimental data and their modelling show non-zero spin ground states for compounds 4 and 5.