Low temperature X-ray structure analyses combined with NBO studies of a new heteroleptic octa-coordinated Holmium(III) complex with N,N,N-tridentate hydrazono-phthalazine-type ligand

Abstract

The new heteroleptic [HoL(H2O)5]Br3 complex, L is hydrazono-phthalazine ligand, is synthesized and its molecular structure aspects were analyzed using single crystal X-ray structure (SCXRD), Hirshfeld (HF) analysis, quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and natural bond orbital (NBO) method. The SCXRD showed that the Ho is octa-coordinated with one N,N,N-tridentate ligand L and five water molecules. The HF analysis is used to analyze the molecular packing in the [HoL(H2O)5]Br3crystal structure. The complex cations are connected via strong OH⋯Br and NH⋯Br H-bonding interactions which have greater importance than the CH⋯Br contacts. Also, all the HoN and HoO bonds have the characteristics of closed shell interactions using QTAIM. The natural orbitals included in these interactions were analyzed using NBO method. The alpha LP*(8)Ho and beta LP*(4)Ho which have mainly s-orbital characters are the most important anti-bonding natural orbitals included in all Ho-N and HoO bonds. The rest of the Ho anti-bonding orbitals which have either p or d-orbital characters shared partially in the Ho-ligands interactions. Natural charges analysis revealed the presence of significant amount of electron density (0.9225–0.9300 e) transferred from the ligands to Ho (2.0700–2.0775 e). Spherical spin density with ∼4.0 e is predicted over the Ho atom.