Complexes of the new potentially hexadentate ligand bis{3-[6-(2,2'-bipyridyl)]pyrazol-1-yl}hydroborate (L-), containing two terdentate chelating arms linked by a -BH2-spacer, were prepared and crystallographically characterised with K+, Cu2+, Gd3+ and Tl+ as representatives of the s-, d-, f- and p-block metals respectively. The crystal structure of the K+ complex revealed it to be the double-helical dinuclear [K2L2], in which each metal ion is six-co-ordinated by a terdentate arm from each of the two ligands; the two ligands are therefore bridging, and folded at the flexible-BH2-spacer group. The complex [Cu2L2[BF4](2) has a similar double-helical dinuclear cation with six-co-ordinate metal centres, but with a greater metal-metal separation because of the greater electrostatic repulsion between two dipositive metal ions compared to [K2L2]. The complex [GdL(NO3)(2)] in contrast is mononuclear with the ligand co-ordinated in a pseudo-equatorial manner, having a shallow helical twist to avoid steric interference between the terminal pyridyl groups. The two pseudo-axial bidentate nitrate ligands complete the ten-fold co-ordination. Formation of a (triple) helical complex between Gd3+ and L-, known with other bisterdentate compartmental ligands, is thought to be disfavoured in this case because of the electrostatic repulsion between the two +3 metal centres that would occur given the relatively short metal-metal separations imposed by the ligand. In [TIL] the Tl+ ion, which is comparable in size and identical in charge to K+, has a preference for lower co-ordination numbers, which is reflected in the fact that not all of the ligand binding sites are co-ordinated and there are three relatively short M-N interactions and two long, weak ones.
