Coordination polymers and discrete complexes of Ag(I)-N-(pyridylmethylene)anilines: synthesis, crystal structures and photophysical properties

Abstract

Reactions of AgO2C2F3 with (E)-N-(pyridylmethylene)aniline in which the pyridyl N is in the p- or m-position yielded two 1-D coordination polymers, [(AgO2C2F3)2(La)2]n (La = (E)-2,6-diisopropyl-N-(pyrid-3-ylmethylene)aniline) (1) and [(AgOC2F3)2(Ld)2]n (Ld = (E)-2,6-diisopropyl-N-(pyrid-4-ylmethylene)aniline) (5), and three discrete complexes, [(AgO2C2F3)2(La)4] (2), [AgO2C2F3(Lb)2] (Lb = (E)-N-(pyrid-4-ylmethylene)aniline) (3) and [(AgOC2F3)2(Lc)4] (Lc = (E)-2,6-dimethyl-N-(pyrid-4-ylmethylene)aniline) (4). The structures were determined by MS, FT-IR and NMR spectroscopies, elemental analysis and single crystal XRD. 1 is an organometallic coordination polymer with silver in η1-arene coordination, but is a discrete dimeric complex 2 when crystallized from warm diethylether. The geometries around silver(I) in 1 and 4 are tetrahedral, ‘inverted seesaw’ in 2 and T-shaped in 3 and in all the anion seems to play a role. Ag(I) centers in 5 have distorted trigonal bipyramid and inverted seesaw geometries. The trifluoroacetate anions in these complexes display variable monodentate and short bridging coordination patterns. All complexes absorb and strongly emit UV-Vis radiation at room temperature.