A novel single pot synthesis of binuclear copper(II) complexes of macrocyclic and macroacyclic compartmental ligands: Structures and magnetic properties

Two binuclear copper(II) complexes one (complex 1) with a macrocyclic ligand (H2L1) and other (complex 2) with a macroacyclic (end-off type) compartmental ligand (HL2) have been synthesized from single pot template synthesis involving copper(II) nitrate, 1,2-diaminoethane, 4-methyl-2,6-diformylphenol, and sodium azide. Structure analysis of complex 1 reveals that there are actually two half molecules present in the asymmetric unit and so two complexes (molecule-I and molecule-II) are present in unit cell, although they show slight differences. The two Cu(II) centers are in distorted square pyramidal coordination environment with two endogenous phenoxo bridges provided by the phenolate of H2L1 having Cu–Cu separations of 2.9133(10) Å and 2.9103(10) in the two molecules. In complex 2 the coordination environments around two Cu(II) centers are asymmetric, Cu1 is in distorted square pyramidal environment whereas, the coordination environment around Cu2 is distorted octahedral. The two Cu(II) centers in complex 2 are connected by two different kinds of bridges, one is endogenous phenoxo bridge provided by the phenolate of the ligand HL2 and the other is exogenous azido bridge (μ−1,1 type) with Cu–Cu distance of 3.032(10) Å. Variable temperature magnetic studies show that two Cu(II) centers in both the complexes are strongly antiferromagnetically coupled with J = −625 ± 5 cm−1 and J = −188.6 ± 1 cm−1 for complex 1 and 2, respectively.