1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 z InorganicChemistry TetranuclearCopper(II)ComplexeswithSimultaneous PhenoxoandAzidoBridges-Synthesis,Structuraland MagneticStudies Priyanka Pandey, [a] Dr. Nidhi Dwivedi, [a] Dr. Goulven Cosquer, [b, c] Prof. Masahiro Yamashita, [b, c, d, e] and Dr. Sailaja S. Sunkari* [a] Tetradentate Schiff base ligands with multiple coordinaton sites are one of the best choice for the construction of multinuclear metal complexes. Coupled with auxiliary ligands under self assembling conditions, the scope for generating new structures increases manifold due to various structure directing factors in operation. Though, phenoxo or azido bridged copper(II) systems have been investigated thoroughly from structural and magnetic aspects, the literature is scanty with combined phenoxo and azido bridged systems. In a study on the effect of synthetic conditions on the structures generated and associ- ated magnetic properties, two new tetranuclear copper com- plexes, viz., [Cu 4 (L1) 2 (μ-N 3 ) 2 (N 3 ) 2 ](1) and [Cu 4 (L2) 2 (μ-N 3 ) 2 (N 3 ) 2 ](2) where L1 = N,N-Bis(salicylidene)diaminopropane (salpn) and L2 = N,N-Bis(salicylidene)diaminobenzene (salophen) with both phenoxo and azido bridges are reported. The tetranuclear cluster is made of two inversion related dimers built of phenoxo bridged Cu1 and Cu2 with distorted square planar and square pyramidal geometries respectively. These dimers are bridged by symmetrically bridging azides leading to a tetranuclear core. The contrasting magnetic behavior inspite of same coordination environments, antiferromagnetic in 1 (J 1 = 2.17 cm 1 ;J 2 = 28.15 cm 1 ) and ferromagnetic in 2 (J 1 = 74.7 cm 1 ;J 2 = 146.5 cm 1 ), is understood in terms of lower bridge angles and closer separation between copper centers in 2 than in 1. Introduction Synthesis and structural studies of polynuclear metal com- plexes is on rise since few years, as they provide interesting systems with material applications as in catalysis, [1] molecule based magnetism, [2] sensing, [3] DNA cleavage [4] and so on. Strategies adopted for generation of such polynuclear systems include self assembly of molecular components and selective organization of metal ions into predesignated positions of tailor made ligands. [5] While the second approach offers control over product formation, the first approach often leads to unpredicted structures of material relevance which may not be obtained otherwise and are aesthetically pleasing too. Tetradentate Schiff base ligands provide ideal environment for positioning the metal ions, thus leading to polynuclear metal complexes. Connecting such complexes with auxiliary ligands can lead to discrete metallates or 1-D polymer chains depending on synthetic conditions as well as ligand geome- try. [6] The influence of synthetic conditions in generating assemblies with rich structural variations has been demon- strated by us as well as others previously. [7] Among the auxiliary ligands, azides are unique with reference to their bridging modes in connecting metal centers, especially Cu II , thus generating a plethora of structures of relevance in magneto chemistry. [8] Such systems provide ideal test systems for understanding the basics of magnetic inter- actions in extended systems. [9] While Cu II magneto chemistry of phenoxo bridged [10] Schiff bases or azido bridged [11] systems individually are plenty in literature, multinuclear Cu II systems involving both phenoxo and azido bridges are rather scarce. [12] The reported systems involving both phenoxo and azido bridges involve tetranuclear copper complexes involving sale- n, [12a] salpn, [12b] and salophen, [12c] as Schiff bases, where salen = N,N-Bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamine; salpn = N,N’-bis(salicyli- dene)-1,3-propylenediamine; salophen = N,N’-bis(salicylidene)- 1,2-diaminobenzene. While the salen system has been charac- terized both structurally and magnetically, the salpn and salophen systems have been characterized only structurally. [a] P. Pandey, Dr. Nidhi Dwivedi, Dr. Sailaja S. Sunkari Department of Chemistry, Mahila MahaVidyalaya, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi 221005, India E-mail: sunkari.s7@gmail.com [b] Dr. Goulven Cosquer, Prof. Masahiro Yamashita Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University 6-3 Aramaki-Aza-Aoba, Sendai 980-8578, Japan [c] Dr. Goulven Cosquer, Prof. Masahiro Yamashita 3 CREST, JST 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan [d] Prof. Masahiro Yamashita WPI Research Center, Advanced Institute for Materials Research Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan [e] Prof. Masahiro Yamashita School of Materials Science and Engineering Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under https://doi.org/10.1002/slct.201801820 FullPapers DOI:10.1002/slct.201801820 10311 ChemistrySelect 2018, 3, 10311 – 10319 © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim