Structural and magnetic diversity in metal-dicyanamido polymer moieties: Paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic 1D chain compound and weakly ferromagnetic 2D motif

The reaction of M(NO₃)₂·xH₂O (M = Cu, Ni and Co; x = 3 for Cu and x = 6 for Co/Ni), imidazole (Im) and sodium dicyanamide (dca) afforded the complexes M(Im)₂(dca)₂] (where M = Cu for 1, M = Ni for 2, and M = Co for 3). All of them have been characterized structurally by single crystal X-ray diffraction measurements. X-ray analysis reveals that the dicyanamido ligand features the μ_1,3 bridging mode that led to the formation of two-dimensional structure of complex 1 while complexes 2 and 3 attribute an infinite one-dimensional chain like structure to generate the fascinating molecular assemblies. The {N(CN)₂}⁻ ligands present in the complexes 2 and 3 are coordinated in end-to-end (μ_1,5) fashion. All the complexes have distorted octahedral geometry around the central metal ion and coordinated by two amine nitrogen atoms from imidazole ligands and four nitrogen atoms from dca ligands. The variable temperature (2-300 K) magnetic susceptibility measurements showed that the magnetic interaction between the metal centers in the complex 1 is dominantly ferromagnetic while the metal ions in complex 3 are antiferromagnetically coupled. On the contrary, complex 2 is a simple paramagnet. The results of magnetic model are in good agreement with the experimental data.