Tetranuclear and dinuclear phenoxido bridged copper complexes based on unsymmetrical thiosemicarbazone ligands

We report on the synthesis of new dinucleating phenol-based "end-off" compartmental ligands HLMeH and HLMe2 bearing two different binding sites, one bis(2-methylpyridyl)aminomethyl (BPA) and one thiosemicarbazone (TSC) site, and their corresponding copper(ii) complexes 1t and 2d. With the ligand HLMeH, a tetranuclear entity (1t) has been isolated in the solid state, whereas with HLMe2, which differs from HLMeH by a methyl substituent on the N-terminal amino group of the TSC arm, a dinuclear form (2d) is obtained. X-ray crystallography analysis shows that the nuclearity di vs. tetra is modulated by interactions between copper atoms and hydroxido bridges along with the sulphur atoms of TSC arms. From a magnetic point of view, 1t can be considered as an association of two dinuclear forms leading for both complexes to overall antiferromagnetic coupling. Analysis in acetonitrile solution of structure-property relationships has been carried out by comparing their UV/Vis, electrochemistry, ESI-MS, and NMR (variable temperature and DOSY = diffusion ordered spectroscopy) properties with trends from computational calculations (DFT). HRMAS-DOSY (High Resolution Magic Angle Spinning) NMR spectroscopy has been performed to evaluate the presence of different species in solution at room temperature.