Polyhedron 20 (2001) 1867 – 1874 Synthesis, spectral and magnetic properties, and crystal structures of copper(II)2-methylthionicotinate adducts with chelating ligands Dus ˇan Miklos ˇ a, *, Peter Segl’a a , Martina Palicova ´ a , Miroslava Kopcova ´ a , Milan Melnı ´k a , Marian Valko b , Tadeusz Glowiak c , Maria Korabik c , Jerzy Mrozinski c a Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Sloak Technical Uniersity, 812 37 Bratislaa, Sloak Republic b Department of Physical Chemistry, Sloak Technical Uniersity, 812 37 Bratislaa, Sloak Republic c Faculty of Chemistry, Uniersity of Wroclaw, F. Joliot Curie 14, 50 383 Wroclaw, Poland Received 4 January 2001; accepted 21 February 2001 Abstract The synthesis and characterization of [Cu 2 (2-MeSnic) 4 (H 2 O) 2 ], [Cu(2-MeSnic) 2 (en)], [Cu(en) 2 (H 2 O) 2 ](2-MeSnic) 2 and [Cu- (dien)(H 2 O) 2 ](2-MeSnic) 2 (where 2-MeSnic =2-methylthionicotinate, en =ethylenediamine, dien =diethylenetriamine) is reported. The characterizations were based on elemental analysis, infrared, electronic and EPR spectra, and magnetic susceptibility measurements over a temperature range of 1.9 – 300 K. The available evidence supports a dimeric structure for [Cu 2 (2- MeSnic) 4 (H 2 O) 2 ] and for [Cu(en) 2 (H 2 O) 2 ](2-MeSnic) 2 a tetragonal-bipyramidal environment about the copper(II) atom. The other two complexes were studied also by X-ray analysis. The [Cu(dien)(H 2 O) 2 ](2-MeSnic) 2 crystallizes in the monoclinic system. The copper(II) atom has a square-pyramidal arrangement, with three nitrogen atoms of the tridentate diethylenetriamine and one water molecule in the base of the pyramid, and the remaining water molecule occupies the apical position. The copper(II) atom deviates from the basal plane by 0.1164(5) A toward the water molecule in the apical position. The copper(II) atom in [Cu(2-MeSnic) 2 (en)] is coordinated by two symmetry-dependent nitrogen atoms of ethylenediamine and by two pairs of non-equivalently coordinated carboxyl oxygen atoms of two symmetry-dependent 2-methylthionicotinates with CuO bond distances of 1.975(2) and 2.564(2) A , respectively, resulting in a highly distorted tetragonal-bipyramidal coordination. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Chelating ligands; Crystal structures; Copper(II) complexes; Pyridinecarboxylate complexes; Dimeric complexes www.elsevier.com/locate/poly 1. Introduction Nicotinic acid and its derivatives possess very inter- esting pharmaceutical properties and are important from a biological point of view. Different possible coordinations of the carboxyl group to the central atom lead to the existence of compounds with distinct crystal structures. Synthesis, spectral and thermal properties of various complexes CuX 2 ·n H 2 O (where X is pyridine-3-carboxy- late or nicotinate (nic) and pyridine-4-carboxylate or isonicotinate (isonic; n =0–4) have been reported [1,2]. Only a few structures of [CuX 2 (H 2 O) 4 ] [3] and their adducts with chelating ligands 1,10-phenanthroline, 2,2-bipyridine, ethylenediamine (en) and diethylenetri- amine (dien) have been reported [4–7]. For example, the reaction of ethanolic solution of copper(II) pyridinecarboxylates CuX 2 ·n H 2 O (where X is nic or isonic, n =0 and 4, respectively) with en in a molar ratio of 1:2 leads to isolation of solid complexes of the type [Cu(en) 2 (H 2 O) 2 ]X 2 ·n H 2 O(n =1 and 0), which con- tain uncoordinated pyridinecarboxylate anions and with dien in a molar ratio of 1:1, leads to the formation of pentacoordinated complexes of the type [CuX(- dien)(H 2 O)]X (X =nic or isonic), which contain coordi- nated and uncoordinated pyridinecarboxylate anions [6,7]. Also, the different coordination modes of the pyridinecarboxylate (coordinated not only through the * Corresponding author. Tel.: +421-7-59325614; fax: +421-7- 52493198. E-mail address: miklos@cvt.stuba.sk (D. Miklos ˇ). 0277-5387/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0277-5387(01)00757-4