Ligand-controlled syntheses of copper(I) complexes with metal-metal interactions: crystal structure and relativistic density functional theory investigation.

A family of di-, tri-, and tetranuclear copper(I) complexes supported by length-controlled silaamidinate ligands have been synthesized to show short Cu(I)-Cu(I) distances (2.43-2.62 Å) and feature a linear or bent metal-metal arrangement, which is elucidated by a relativistic density functional theory calculation.