Effect of methylation on the coordination of copper by small azacryptands; the role of geometrically constrained hydrogen bonding in stabilizing terminally coordinated oxygen species

Does H3O+ Really Act as a Ligand in the Solid State?

The evidence for the existence of metal complexes containing H₃O⁺ as a ligand in the solid state is examined. Each of the 68 examples in the Cambridge Structural Database in which H₃O⁺ is bound to a transition metal, lanthanoid, actinoid, or main group metal ion is detailed and critically appraised. It is concluded that none of the reported examples of complexes containing coordinated H₃O⁺ have been unequivocally characterized and that they result from either curation errors or misinterpretations of the crystallographic data. These conclusions are supported by computational techniques, which show that three purported H₃O⁺ complexes based on the 1,4,7,10,13,16,21,24-octa-azabicyclo(8.8.8)hexacosane azacryptand skeleton are better described as aqua complexes, with protonation occurring at the amine ligand.

Photophysical characterization of a highly luminescent divalent-europium-containing azacryptate

We report a new luminescent EuII-containing complex. The complex is excited with visible light, leading to emission centered at 447 nm with a lifetime of 1.25 μs. Computational studies suggest that the steric bulk of the ligand is a major factor influencing the wavelength of emission.

A novel trisprotonated beta-dialdiminate cryptand

The beta-dialdiminate cryptand L(4) can be isolated in the tris protonated state, [H(3)L(4)](3+), from the condensation of malonaldehyde (generated in situ from its tetraacetal derivative) with tris-2-aminoethylamine (tren) in [3 + 2] mode. The cryptate cannot be deprotonated under aqueous conditions, but the neutral cryptand can be made by treatment with KOH in dry methanol. This cryptand is water-sensitive, but may be treated with copper salts under anhydrous conditions to generate highly insoluble copper(II) derivatives. The reduced form of the cryptand L(5) can be isolated upon borohydride reduction, and used to make dicopper mu-hydroxo cryptates, where strong interaction between the pair of encapsulated paramagnetic cations leads to effective magnetic silence. Crystal structures of L(4) in three of its tris protonated salts and of the solvated neutral ligand L(4) are presented, together with that of a mu-hydroxo dicopper(II) cryptate of the fully reduced cryptand, [Cu(2)(OH)L(5)] x 3 ClO(4) x MeCN.

N-methylation of macrobicycles reduces encapsulation ability

N-methylation alters the conformation of octa-azacryptands leaving them unable to use all potential N-donors to coordinate copper(II) and anionic guests. This restriction, in the presence of other donors, normally results in exogenous coordination, with the exception of carbonate complexes, where two O-donors from the bridging anion along with three N-donors from the cryptand serve, in this series uniquely, to retain a pair of copper(II) ions within the "basket-shaped" cavity.