Phenylmalonate-Bridged Cu(II) Complexes
A reasonable synthetic approach to build three-dimensional
structures in crystal engineering consists of connecting layers
of transition metal ions through bridging ligands.1,2 The
dimensionality of the structure can be controlled by a careful
selection of the metal coordination structure and the organic
spacer. Recent reports have focused on the malonate ligand
(anion of the malonic acid, hereafter noted mal) as a flexible
and fruitful tool for the design of magnetic systems with
different dimensionalities when an appropriate coligand is
used.9-11 The introduction of substituents on the methylene
group of the malonate ligand could induce different confor-
mations because of geometrical constraints, and it would
make possible specific interactions between substituents,
which would contribute to the overall stability of the resulting
compound. In the first steps of these investigations, we have
focused on the phenylmalonate dianion (Phmal), and recent
reports were devoted to its complexation of copper(II).12
The dimensionality of the structures of the copper(II)-
phenylmalonate coordination complexes can be modified
with the presence of adequate ligands such as 4,4′-bipyridine
(4,4′-bpy) and 2,4′-bipyridine (2,4′-bpy). The efficiency of
these ligands stems from their rigidity, which allows for some
degree of control to be exerted upon the steric constraints
of the assembly process. The use of these ligands has yielded
a great variety of coordination polymers, some of them
featuring unprecedented physical phenomena (porosity,
catalysis, gas and small molecule sorption, magnetism, etc).
The current state of the knowledge in this topical area is
described in several recent reviews.2,13
1 and 2 are two-dimensional compounds that are structurally
very different because of the terminal and bridging coordina-
tion modes of the 2,4′-bpy and 4,4′-bpy ligands, respectively.
Intralayer antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions
are observed in 1 and 2, respectively.
Experimental Section
Materials. Phenylmalonic acid (H2Phmal), copper(II) acetate
hydrate [Cu(CH3COO)2‚2.5H2O], 4,4′-bipyridine (4,4′-bpy), 2,4′-
bipyridine (2,4′-bpy), and methanol (MeOH) were purchased from
Aldrich and used as received. Elemental analyses (C, H, N) were
performed on an EA 1108 CHNS-O microanalytical analyzer.
Synthesis of [Cu(4,4′-bpy)(Phmal)]n‚2nH2O (1). An aqueous
solution of copper(II) phenylmalonate (120 mg, 0.5 mmol), prepared
as previously described,12 was placed into one arm of an H-shaped
tube, and a 50/50 MeOH/water solution of the 4,4′-bpy (78 mg,
0.5 mmol) was put into the other arm. A 50/50 MeOH/water
solution was added dropwise to fill the H-shaped tube. Rectangular
blue single crystals of 1 appeared within a week by slow diffusion
at room temperature and were used for all measurements. Anal.
Calcd for C19H18N2O6Cu (1): C, 52.59; H, 4.15; N, 6.46. Found:
C, 52.30; H, 4.25; N, 6.38. IR (KBr, cm-1): ν 1614 vs, 1580 vs,
1494 m, 1430 s, 790 m.
Synthesis of [Cu(2,4′-bpy)(Phmal)(H2O)]n (2). Compound 2
was obtained by following a similar procedure to that of 1, but
2,4′-bpy was used instead of 4,4′-bpy. Single crystals of 2 as blue
rods appeared within a week by slow diffusion at room temperature
and were used for all measurements. Anal. Calcd for C19H16N2O5-
Cu (2): C, 54.87; H, 3.69; N, 6.74. Found: C, 54.58; H, 3.76; N,
6.72. IR (KBr, cm-1): ν 1614 vs, 1593 vs, 1452 m, 1410 vs, 788
s.
In previous reports, these ligands were incorporated into
copper(II)-malonate complexes producing, for instance, the
isolated tetranuclear unit [Cu4(mal)4(2,4′-bpy)4(H2O)4]‚8H2O
and the two-dimensional compound [Cu4(mal)4(4,4′-bpy)2-
(H2O)4]n.14 In addition to the stacking interactions between
the pyridyl groups that stabilize the structure in both malonate
compounds, π-π interactions between the pyridyl and
phenyl rings are expected in the Phmal-copper(II) com-
plexes.
We report herein the synthesis, crystallographic study, and
magnetic properties of two new phenylmalonate-copper-
(II) complexes with the formulas [Cu(4,4′-bpy)(Phmal)]n‚
2nH2O (1) and [Cu(2,4′-bpy)(Phmal)(H2O)]n (2). Complexes
Physical Techniques. IR spectra (450-4000 cm-1) of 1 and 2
were recorded on a Bruker IF S55 spectrophotometer with samples
prepared as KBr pellets. EPR spectra on a polycrystalline sample
of 2 were carried out on a Bruker Elexsys E580 EPR spectrometer
operating at Q-band (34 GHz) frequency. Magnetic susceptibility
measurements on polycrystalline samples of 1 and 2 were performed
in the temperature range of 1.9-290 K with a Quantum Design
SQUID magnetometer. Diamagnetic corrections of the constituent
atoms were estimated from Pascal’s constants15 to be -238 × 10-6
and -225 × 10-6 cm3 mol-1 for 1 and 2, respectively. Experimental
susceptibilities were also corrected for the temperature-independent
paramagnetism [60 × 10-6 cm3 mol-1 per Cu(II) ion] and the
magnetization of the sample holder.
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M. I.; Rojo, T. Inorg. Chem. 1998, 37, 3243. (c) Ruiz-Pe´rez, C.;
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Inorganic Chemistry, Vol. 44, No. 22, 2005 7795