Magnetic properties of an oxo-bridged dinuclear iron(III) complex resulting from the oxidation of mononuclear iron metallacycles with a flexible ethylenediphenylenebis(oxamate) ligand

Abstract

Transition metal ions such as copper(II), nickel(II), cobalt(II), and manganese(II) are widely used in the formation of mono- or oligonuclear metallacyclic complexes with the flexible N,N’-2,2′-ethylenediphenylenebis(oxamate) ligand (H4edpba); however similar supramolecular complexes with iron(II) and iron(III) are rarely obtained. In this work, we synthesized for the first time a new air-stable oxo-bridged diiron(III) complex of formula {[Fe(H2edpba)(dmso)]2(μ-O)}·dmso·H2O (2) from dioxygen oxidation of the putative mononuclear iron(II) complex precursor of formula [Fe(H2edpba)(H2O)2]Cl (1) in dimethylsulfoxide (dmso). Compound 2 crystallizes in the monoclinic system and contains one oxo group bridging two cationic mononuclear metallacyclic moieties, [Fe(H2edpba)(dmso)]+. The iron(III) ions are also coordinated to four oxygen atoms from the dianionic H2edpba2− ligands in a tetradentate fashion, while an oxygen atom from the coordinated dmso molecules. Mössbauer spectroscopy confirms the presence of high-spin (HS) Fe3+ ions (2). The magnetic properties of 2 reveal a strong antiferromagnetic interaction between the two HS Fe3+ ions (J = −226.46 cm−1), in agreement with the DFT calculations (J = −207.99 cm−1).