A Cu<sub>12</sub> Metallacycle Assembled from Four <i>C</i><sub>3</sub>-Symmetric Spin Frustrated Triangular Units

oleh: Basharat Ali, Grégoire David, Frédéric Gendron, Xiao-Lei Li, Olivier Cador, Winfried Plass, Boris Le Guennic, Jinkui Tang

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-05-01

Deskripsi

Assembling metallacycles with interesting topological arrangements is a critical task for chemists. We report here a novel dodecanuclear Cu<sup>II</sup> compound, [{Cu<sub>3</sub>L(µ-N<sub>3</sub>)}<sub>4</sub>(Py)<sub>14</sub>]·2Py (<b>Cu<sub>12</sub></b>) (where Py = pyridine and [H<sub>6</sub>L]Cl = tris(2-hydroxybenzylidine)triaminoguanidinium chloride, respectively), with the topology of a cycle accomplished by four two-connecting approximately flat <i>C</i><sub>3</sub>-symmetric guanidine-based ligands. Each ligand affords three tridentate metal-binding cavities and the four node-to-node connections through single azido bridges are provided by pairs of metal centers. A theoretical investigation using CASSCF in addition to DFT calculations showed strong antiferromagnetic coupling within the Cu<sub>3</sub>-triangles, resulting in spin-frustrated systems. However, these calculations were not able to properly reproduce the very weak antiferromagnetic couplings between the triangle units, highlighting the challenge of describing the magnetic behavior of this compound.