Synthesis of new tridentate 5-(arylazo) salicylaldimine ligands and their Cu (II) complexes

• Synthesis of 5-(arylazo)salicylaldehydes as preligands.
• New tridentate Schiff base ligands were synthesized via condensation of preligand and 2-aminophenol or 2-aminothiophenol.
• The new ligands were subjected to react with CuCl2.
• The structures of the ligands and metals complexes were established.

New tridentate Schiff base ligands (H2L) were synthesized via condensation of 5-(arylazo)salicylaldehydes and 2-aminophenol or 2-aminothiophenol. When the new salicylaldimines were subjected to react with CuCl2 in the presence of N(Et)3 yield the new complexes. The structure of the metal complexes was established by microanalyses, IR, UV spectra and thermal analyses. The results suggest that the ligands were coordinated to the copper ion in tridentate manner with ONO (or ONS) donor sites of the deprotonated phenolic-OH, azomethine-N, and deprotonated phenolic-OH (or deprotonated thiophenolic-SH). Furthermore, one water molecule was coordinated to the central metal atom. The composition of complexes can be represented as CuL⋅H2O.