Broken symmetry density functional study of biomimetic models for Purple Acid Phosphatases of the type Fe(III)–M(II) (M=Fe, Cu, Ni, Co and Mn)

Effect of 3d heterometallic ions on the magnetic properties of azido-Cu(II) with isonicotinic acid coligands: A theoretical perspective

Based on density functional theory and the broken-symmetry approach, the magnetic properties of an azido-Cu(II) complex with isonicotinic acid coligands were studied at the B1LYP/def2-TZVP level. According to the molecular magnetic orbitals and Mulliken spin population analysis, there are strong orbital interactions between the paramagnetic Cu^II/Ni^II ions and the bridging azide ligands and isonicotinic ions. The supposedly empty 4s/4p/4d orbitals of the M^II ions are found to play an important role in the mechanism of magnetic coupling and are probed using NBO analysis. As the number of unpaired electrons on the M^II ions increases, the number of electrons that occupy the empty 4d orbitals with the highest energy and overlap integrals of the magnetic orbitals in the Cu^IIM^II (M = Cu, Ni, Co, Fe, Mn) model complexes increases accordingly, and the magnetic coupling constant gradually decreases.