Steric effects of alkyl substituents at n-donor bidentate amines direct the nuclearity, bonding and bridging modes in isothiocyanato-copper(II) coordination compounds

Abstract

A series of Cu(II)-isothiocyanato coordination compounds derived from sterically hindered N-donor diamines were synthesized and characterized: Catena-[Cu(Me3en)(μ-NCS)(NCS)] (1), catena-[Cu(NEt2Meen)(μ-NCS)(NCS)] (2), catena-[Cu(N,N,2,2-Me4pn)(μ-NCS)(NCS)] (3), the dimeric: [Cu2(N,N′-isp2en)2(µ-NCS)2(NCS)2] (4) and the monomeric compound [Cu(N,N′-t-Bu2en)(NCS)2] (5), where Me3en = N,N,N′-trimethylethylenediamine, NEt2Meen = N,N-diethyl-N′-methylethylenediamine, N,N,2,2-Me4pn = N,N,2,2-tetramethylpropylenediamine, N,N′-isp2en = N,N′-diisopropylethylenediamine and N,N′-t-Bu2en = N,N′-di(tert-butyl)ethylenediamine. The coordination compounds were characterized by elemental microanalyses, IR, and UV–Vis spectroscopy as well as single crystal X-ray crystallography. Density Functional Theory (DFT) was used to evaluate the role of steric effects in compounds 4 and 5 and how this may affect the adaption of a specific geometry, NCS-bonding mode, and the dimensionality of the resulting coordination compound.