Synthesis, structure and magnetic property of an asymmetric chlorido bridged dinuclear copper(II) complex containing a didentate Schiff base

A dinuclear complex, [Cu-2(mu-Cl)(2)Cl-2(pbba)(2)] (1) [pbba = N-((pyridin-2-yl)benzylidene)benzylaminel, has been isolated from the reaction of a 1:1 M ratio of CuCl2 center dot 2H(2)O and pbba in MeOH solution at room temperature. Compound 1 has been characterized using microanalytical, spectroscopic, thermal and other physico-chemical results. Single crystal X-ray diffraction measurements show that each metal center in 1 adopts a distorted square pyramidal geometry with a CuN2Cl3 chromophore ligated through two N atoms of pbba and two bridging and one terminal chloride atom. The centrosymmetric dinuclear unit contains an asymmetric di-mu-chlorido bridge. Variable-temperature magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate weak intramolecular ferromagnetic coupling (J = +5.02 +/- 0.13 cm(-1)) through chlorido bridges and weak intermolecular antiferromagnetic (J' = -0.32 +/- 0.01 cm(-1)) interactions among the dinuclear entities, coupled with weak zero-field splitting arising from the S = 1 ground state. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.