ORIENTAL JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY www.orientjchem.org An International Open Access, Peer Reviewed Research Journal ISSN: 0970-020 X CODEN: OJCHEG 2019, Vol. 35, No.(5): Pg. 1500-1507 This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution 4.0 International (CC- BY). Published by Oriental Scientific Publishing Company © 2018 Complex of Tris(phenanthroline)cobalt(II) Trifluoroacetate: Characterisation and Powder XRD Analysis ISANA SUPIAH YOSEPHINE LOUISE, SAVETSILLA NABILA and KRISTIAN HANDOYO SUGIYARTO* Department of Chemistry Education, Yogyakarta State University, Jl. Colombo No.1., Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia. *Corresponding author E-mail: sugiyarto@uny.ac.id http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/ojc/350504 (Received: September 13, 2019; Accepted: October 03, 2019) ABSTRACT The powder complex of tris(phenanthroline)cobalt(II) trifluoroacetate (TFA) has been prepared by interaction of cobalt(II) nitrate, phenanthroline (phen) in aqueous solution with drops of ethanol, and an excess of saturated aqueous solution of sodium trifluoroacetate, where upon the yellowish powder was produced. AAS measurment for the metal content, equivalent conductance (1:2), and TGA-DTA of the powder suggest the corresponding formula of [Co(phen) 3 ](TFA) 2 .5H 2 O. The efffective magnetic moment of 4.9 BM indicates the high-spin nature of this complex which corresponds to three unpaired electrons in the electronic configuration of Co(II) with significantly higher than the spin only value due to the orbital contribution. UV-Vis spectrum of the complex reveals the d-d spin-allowed transition bands as well as the MLCT and intraligand band. The estimating transition energy ratio of 2.04 for ν 2 /ν 1 , is clearly in the range for octahedral configuration. The infrared results property indicates the main mode of vibrations for the functional groups of ligand phen and TFA, and thus supports the formula proposed for this complex. The corresponding powder XRD was then refined using Rietica-Le Bail method and found to be fit as triclinic crystal system with space group of PI. Keywords: Rietica, Phen, Trifluoroacetate, Cobalt(II). INTRODUCTION Crystal structure of tris-bidentate-cobalt(II) complexes have been well known, particularly those with N-donor atoms in six-membered ring system, bipyridine (bipy) 1,2 and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) 3 . Structural studies through single crystal XRD analyses of tris(phen)cobalt(II) with several counter anions, the perchlorate (ClO 4 ) 4 , squarate (C 4 O 4 ) 5 , tetrathionate (S 4 O 6 ) 6 , triiodide (I 3 ) 7 and the trichloroacetate (CCl 3 COO) 8 have been well refined. The point is that the cell parameters for the cationic complex in those complexes are different one to another even though the symmetry and space group of the crystal may or may not the same class. Therefore, discussing the cell parameters through other simple method by powder X-ray diffraction may be relevant. Quite recently, the cell parameters of some complexes have been estimated from the corresponding powder-XRD by applying Le Bail