Synthesis, Characterization and Crystal Structure of a Novel Tri‐nuclear Ni(II) Cluster Bearing Tetra‐µ‐phenoxo and Di‐µ‐acetato Bridges

A novel trinuclear nickel (II) cluster {[NiL(EtOH)]₂(OAc)₂Ni} · 2EtOH has been synthsized and characterized by elemental analyses, TG‐DTA, IR and ¹H‐NMR etc. The X‐ray crystallography of the cluster indicates that the ligand moieties of the cluster provide the N₂O₂ donors set to Ni2, while one oxygen atom of the μ‐acetato and one oxygen atom of the ethanol molecule coordinate to Ni2, consequently forming a slightly distorted octahedral geometry. The double μ‐acetato bridges adopt the more familiar μ O‐C‐O form which connect the Ni2‐Ni1 and Ni1‐Ni2#, respectively, so quadruple µ‐phenoxo oxygens from 2 ligand moieties and double oxygen atoms from µ‐acetato constitute another octahedral geometry. It is worthy noting that the distance from the Ni1 to Ni2 (3.089Å) is significantly longer than other coordination bond, shows a weaker interaction. In addition, the HOMO and LUMO levels of the cluster were deduced.

Keywords:

• 2,2′‐[(1,3‐propylene)dioxybis(nitrilomethylidyne)]diphenol
• Nickel (II) cluster
• synthesis
• crystal structure

This work was supported by the Foundation of the Education Department of Gansu Province (No. 0604‐01) and the ‘Qing Lan’ Talent Engineering Funds of Lanzhou Jiaotong University (No. QL‐03‐01A), which are gratefully acknowledged.