Triggering of Valence Tautomeric Transitions in Dioxolene-Based Cobalt Complexes Influenced by Ligand Substituents, Co-ligands, and Anions

Abstract

We report the multistep synthesis of the 1,1′-(piperazine-1,4-diyl)bis(N,N-bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)methanamine)(Ltpbap) octadentate ligand, which, in combination with the known 3,5-di-tert-butylcatechol (3,5-dbcat), allowed the preparation of two di-nuclear cobalt complexes [Co2(Ltpbap)(3,5-dbcat)2](SO4)·5.5MeOH·2H2O (3a) and [Co2(Ltpbap)(3,5-dbcat)2](ClO4)2·1.5H2O (3b). We also report the synthesis of two mono-nuclear cobalt complexes [Co(3,5-dbsq)(3,5-dbcat)(4-Mepip)2] (1) with 4-Mepip being 4-methylpiperidine and (Hpip)[Co(tbcat)2(pip)2]·CH3CN (2) where Hpip denotes a piperidinium cation and tbcat is the tetra-bromocatechol ligand. The obtained complexes were characterized by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, SQUID magnetometry, and IR spectroscopy. The structure of the crystalline material in all the cases was determined at 173 K. The magnetic properties of all complexes were measured between 2 and 380 K. The magnetic data clearly show that mono-nuclear complex 1 and di-nuclear complex 3a exhibit valence tautomerism with onset around 300 K and 370 K, respectively, whereas the other two complexes 2 and 3b remain unchanged over the measured temperature range.