Solvent dependence of the g-anisotropy in the ESR of cyanide-bridged mixed-valence complexes

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The low temperature (approximately 5 K) X-band ESR spectra are reported of the cyanide-bridged mixed-valence complexes [(OC)5Cr(mu-CN)M(NH3)5]X2 (M = Ru, Os; X = PF6(-)) in frozen matrices formed from nitromethane, acetonitrile and dimethylformamide with toluene. The anisotropy (g paralell-g perpendicular) is greater for the ruthenium than for the osmium complex. It is positive in all cases and is strongly dependent on the hydrogen-bonding interaction between the solvent matrix and the metal-ammine fragment, decreasing in the order nitromethane > acetonitrile > dimethylformamide. The axial ligand field parameter, Delta, is quite insensitive to the ammine metal (M) and is mainly determined by the solvent matrix. Density functional calculations, together with a simplified MO model, show that: (a) The value of Delta is dominated by the interaction between the filled cyanide pi-orbitals and the ammine-metal d(xz,yz) orbitals, (b) Delta decreases with increasing solvent donicity because the resulting positive shift of the d-orbital energies reduces this interaction, (c) the insensitivity of Delta to the ammine-metal arises because an increase in the energy mismatch between the cyanide pi-orbitals and the d-orbitals in osmium compound is offset by an increase in the 5d resonance integrals relative to those in the 4d shell. Semi-quantitative values are obtained for the pi and pi* resonance integrals. We point out that g paralell determines that portion of the ammine-metal spin population that interacts with the cyanide bridge, and should therefore be correlated with the degree of metal-metal charge transfer in low-spin d6-d5 intervalence compounds. X-band ESR spectra of the polycrystalline powders (M = Ru, Os; X = CF3SO3(-)) are rhombic with similar axial and rhombic ligand field parameters. The rhombicity is interpreted as resulting from asymmetric cation-anion hydrogen-bonding that is apparent in the crystal structures of these isomorphous compounds.