Thermal analysis and structural characterization of copper(II) complexes with salicyladehydes

Abstract

The new copper (II) complexes with substituted salicylaldehyde ligands (X-saloH, where X = 3-methoxy and 5-methyl) formulated as [Cu(3-OCH3-salo)2(H2O)] (1) and [Cu(5-CH3-salo)2] (2), respectively, were synthesized and characterized by physicochemical methods and by spectroscopy (IR and UV–Vis). The different geometry around Cu2+ ion for the two complexes was proved by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Simultaneous TG/DTG–DTA techniques were used to analyze their thermal behavior under inert atmosphere, with particular attention to determine their thermal degradation pathways, which was found to be a multi-step decomposition accompanied by the release of the ligand molecules. The activation energy of the decomposition processes was calculated using the isoconversional Ozawa–Flynn–Wall (OFW) method and the reaction model was determined with the model fitting method.