New μ-OAC bridged dinuclear copper(II) complex with tridentate Schiff base ligand: Synthesis, characterization, crystal structure, and CuO nano-particles formation

A new (μ-acetato)-bridged dinuclear copper(II) complex [Cu2(L)2(μ-OAc)2] (I) has been synthesized by the reaction of a tridentate N2O Schiff base ligand (HL) with Cu(OAC)2 in methanol at refluxed conditions and characterized by elemental analysis (CHN) and FT-IR spectroscopy. The crystal structure of I was investigated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (CIF file CCDC no. 1013907). X-ray results showed that two OAC groups bridge the copper(II) ions in a Cu2O2 core of a binuclear complex. Each copper(II) ion adopts a distorted square-pyramidal geometry with one imine nitrogen, one amine nitrogen and one phenolato oxygen from the tridentate Schiff base ligand, completed by two acetate oxygen atoms. Finally, the complex was thermally decomposed in order to obtain CuO nano-particles. The particles were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, which confirmed the formation of the CuO nano-particles with the average size of 24 nm.