Nucleophilic Addition of Water and Alcohols to Dicyanonitrosomethanide: Ligands with Diverse Bonding Modes in Magnetically Coupled d‐Block Complexes

Abstract

AbstractLigands resulting from the transition‐metal‐promoted nucleophilic addition of water or an alcohol to dicyanonitrosomethanide ions (dcnm) have been utilised in the formation of a large series of polynuclear complexes. Addition of water to dcnm results in formation of carbamoylcyanonitrosomethanide (ccnm); deprotonation of this ligand gives amidocarbonyl(cyano)nitrosomethanide (acnm), which has been incorporated into the trinuclear complex [Cu3(acnm)2(dmae)2(H2O)2] [dmae = 2‐(dimethylamino)ethoxide] (1) which shows strong antiferromagnetic coupling with an exchange coupling constant, J = –500 cm–1. [Cu(acnm)(NH3)2]∞ (2) marks the first instance of acnm facilitating the formation of a coordination polymer, namely a 1D chain with intramolecular hydrogen bonding. Attempts to synthesise 2 through different reaction conditions instead resulted in the mononuclear [Cu(acnm)(NH3)2(py)] (py = pyridine) (3). The addition of ethanol to dcnm results in cyano[imino(ethoxy)methyl]nitrosomethanide (cenm) which features in the mononuclear [Cu(cenm)2(H2O)2] (4) and polymeric {[Cu(cenm)2]2·H2O}∞ (5). The latter is the first example of the cenm ligand in a coordination polymer and has a highly unusual coordination mode through the nitrile groups and extremely weak antiferromagnetic coupling. {[Mn3(ccnm)2(EtOH)2(OAc)4]·2EtOH}∞ (6) and (Et4N)2[Cu(ccnm)4] (7) contain previously unobserved coordination modes of the ccnm ligand while the complex [Mn(cmnm)3Mn(bipy)(MeOH)](ClO4) (8) {cmnm = cyano[imino(methoxy)methyl]nitrosomethanide, bipy = 2,2′‐bipyridine} displays weak antiferromagnetic coupling between manganese atoms with J = –1.44 cm–1. A change in the solvent systems used in the synthesis of 7 results in the formation of the mononuclear complexes [Mn(bipy)2(dcnm)2] (9) or [Mn(bipy)2(H2O)(dcnm)](dcnm)·H2O (10) and [Mn(bipy)2(dcnm)(H2O)](dcnm) (11). The addition of ethlyene glycol monomethyl ether to dcnm gives cyano[imino(2‐methoxyethoxy)methyl]nitrosomethanide (cgnm) and the formation of [Cu(cgnm)2(H2O)2] (12).