Magnetic exchange interactions and magneto-structural correlations in heterobridged µ-phenoxo-µ(1,1)-azide dinickel(II) compounds: a combined experimental and theoretical exploration.

This investigation presents the syntheses, crystal structures, magnetic properties, and density functional theoretical modeling of magnetic behavior of two heterobridged µ-phenoxo-µ(1,1)-azido dinickel(II) compounds [Ni(II)(2)(L(1))(2)(µ(1,1)-N(3))(N(3))(H(2)O)]·CH(3)CH(2)OH (1) and [Ni(II)(2)(L(2))(2)(µ(1,1)-N(3))(CH(3)CN)(H(2)O)](ClO(4))·H(2)O·CH(3)CN (2), where HL(1) and HL(2) are the [1+1] condensation products of 3-methoxysalicylaldehyde and 1-(2-aminoethyl)-piperidine (for HL(1))/4-(2-aminoethyl)-morpholine (for HL(2)), along with density functional theoretical magneto-structural correlations of µ-phenoxo-µ(1,1)-azido dinickel(II) systems. Compounds 1 and 2 crystallize in orthorhombic (space group Pbca) and monoclinic (space group P2(1)/c) systems, respectively. The coordination environments of both metal centers are distorted octahedral. The variable-temperature (2-300 K) magnetic susceptibilities at 0.7 T of both compounds have been measured. The interaction between the metal centers is moderately ferromagnetic; J = 16.6 cm(-1), g = 2.2, and D = -7.3 cm(-1) for 1 and J = 16.92 cm(-1), g = 2.2, and D(Ni1) = D(Ni2) = -6.41 cm(-1) for 2. Broken symmetry density functional calculations of exchange interaction have been performed on complexes 1 and 2 and provide a good numerical estimate of J values (15.8 cm(-1) for 1 and 15.35 cm(-1) for 2) compared to experiments. The role of Ni-N bond length asymmetry on the magnetic coupling has been noted by comparing the structures and J values of complexes 1 and 2 together with previously published dimers 3 (Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2009, 4982), 4 (Inorg. Chem. 2004, 43, 2427), and 5 (Dalton Trans. 2008, 6539). Our extensive DFT calculations reveal an important clue to the mechanism of coupling where the orientation of the magnetic orbitals seems to differ with asymmetry in the Ni-N bond lengths. This difference in orientation leads to a large change in the overlap integral between the magnetic orbitals and thus the magnetic coupling. DFT calculations have also been extended to develop several magneto-structural correlations in this type of complexes and the correlation aim to focus on the asymmetry of the Ni-N bond lengths reveal that the asymmetry plays a proactive role in governing the magnitude of the coupling. From a completely symmetric Ni-N bond length, two behaviors have been noted: with a decrease in bond length there is an increase in the ferromagnetic coupling, while an increase in the bond lengths leads to a decrease in ferromagnetic interaction. The later correlation is supported by experiments. The magnetic properties of 1, 2, and three previously reported related compounds have been discussed in light of the structural parameters and also in light of the theoretical correlations determined here.

Magneto-structural correlation studies and theoretical calculations of a unique family of single end-to-end azide-bridged Ni(II)4 cyclic clusters.

The work in this paper aims to portray a complete structural, magnetic, and theoretical description of two original end-to-end (EE) µ(1,3)-azide-bridged, cyclic tetranuclear Ni(II) clusters, [{Ni(II)(L(1))(µ(1,3)-N(3))(H(2)O)}(4)] (1) and [{Ni(II)(L(2))(µ(1,3)-N(3))(H(2)O)}(4)] (2), where the ligands used to achieve these species, HL(1) and HL(2), are the tridentate Schiff base ligands obtained from [1 + 1] condensations of salicylaldehyde with 1-(2-aminoethyl)-piperidine and 4-(2-aminoethyl)-morpholine, respectively. The title compounds, 1 and 2, crystallize in a monoclinic P2(1) space group. Overall, both species can be described in a similar way; where all Ni(II) centers within each molecule are hexacoordinated and bound to [L(1)](-) or [L(2)](-) through the phenoxo oxygen, imine nitrogen, and piperidine/morpholine nitrogen atoms of the corresponding ligand. The remaining coordination sites are satisfied by one molecule of H(2)O and two nitrogen atoms from N(3)(-) anions. The latest act as bridges between Ni(II) ions, and eventually, only four azido groups are linked to the same number of Ni(II) centers resulting in the formation of cyclic Ni(II)(4) systems. Interestingly, compounds 1 and 2 are the two sole examples of tetranuclear clusters generated exclusively by EE azide-bridging ligands to date. All the N(azide)-Ni-N(azide) moieties are almost linear in 1 and 2 indicating trans arrangement of the azido ligand. Variable-temperature (2-300 K) magnetic susceptibilities of 1 and 2 have been measured under magnetic fields of 0.04 T (from 2 to 30 K) and 0.7 T (from 30 to 300 K), and magneto-structural correlations have been performed. Despite the presence of both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions in both compounds, significant differences have been observed in their magnetic behaviors directly related to the arrangement of the bridging azido ligands. Hence, compound 1 has an overall moderate antiferromagnetic behavior due to the presence of an exchange pathway with an unprecedented Ni-N···N-Ni torsion angle close to 0°, meanwhile complex 2 exhibits a predominant ferromagnetic behavior, with torsion angles between 50 and 90°. Density functional theory calculations have been performed to provide more insight into the magnetic nature of this new family of Ni(II)-azido complexes and also to corroborate the fitting of the data.