Importance of halogen···halogen contacts for the structural and magnetic properties of CuX2(pyrazine-N,N'-dioxide)(H2O)2 (X = Cl and Br).

The structural and magnetic properties of the newly crystallized CuX(2)(pyzO)(H(2)O)(2) (X = Cl, Br; pyzO = pyrazine-N,N'-dioxide) coordination polymers are reported. These isostructural compounds crystallize in the monoclinic space group C2/c with, at 150 K, a = 17.0515(7) Å, b = 5.5560(2) Å, c = 10.4254(5) Å, ß = 115.400(2)°, and V = 892.21(7) Å(3) for X = Cl and a = 17.3457(8) Å, b = 5.6766(3) Å, c = 10.6979(5) Å, ß = 115.593(2)°, and V = 950.01(8) Å(3) for X = Br. Their crystal structure is characterized by one-dimensional chains of Cu(2+) ions linked through bidentate pyzO ligands. These chains are joined together through OH···O hydrogen bonds between the water ligands and pyzO oxygen atoms and Cu-X···X-Cu contacts. Bulk magnetic susceptibility measurements at ambient pressure show a broad maximum at 7 (Cl) and 28 K (Br) that is indicative of short-range magnetic correlations. The dominant spin exchange is the Cu-X···X-Cu supersuperexchange because the magnetic orbital of the Cu(2+) ion is contained in the CuX(2)(H(2)O)(2) plane and the X···X contact distances are short. The magnetic data were fitted to a Heisenberg 1D uniform antiferromagnetic chain model with J(1D)/k(B) = -11.1(1) (Cl) and -45.9(1) K (Br). Magnetization saturates at fields of 16.1(3) (Cl) and 66.7(5) T (Br), from which J(1D) is determined to be -11.5(2) (Cl) and -46.4(5) K (Br). For the Br analog the pressure dependence of the magnetic susceptibility indicates a gradual increase in the magnitude of J(1D)/k(B) up to -51.2 K at 0.84 GPa, suggesting a shortening of the Br···Br contact distance under pressure. At higher pressure X-ray powder diffraction data indicates a structural phase transition at ∼3.5 GPa. Muon-spin relaxation measurements indicate that CuCl(2)(pyzO)(H(2)O)(2) is magnetically ordered with T(N) = 1.06(1) K, while the signature for long-range magnetic order in CuBr(2)(pyzO)(H(2)O)(2) was much less definitive down to 0.26 K. The results for the CuX(2)(pyzO)(H(2)O)(2) complexes are compared to the related CuX(2)(pyrazine) materials.

Structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of quasi-1D quantum magnets [Ni(HF2)(pyz)2]X (pyz = pyrazine; X = PF6(-), SbF6(-)) exhibiting Ni-FHF-Ni and Ni-pyz-Ni spin interactions.

[Ni(HF(2))(pyz)(2)]X {pyz = pyrazine; X = PF(6)(-) (1), SbF(6)(-) (2)} were structurally characterized by synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and found to possess axially compressed NiN(4)F(2) octahedra. At 298 K, 1 is monoclinic (C2/c) with unit cell parameters, a = 9.9481(3), b = 9.9421(3), c = 12.5953(4) Å, and ß = 81.610(3)° while 2 is tetragonal (P4/nmm) with a = b = 9.9359(3) and c = 6.4471(2) Å and is isomorphic with the Cu-analogue. Infinite one-dimensional (1D) Ni-FHF-Ni chains propagate along the c-axis which are linked via µ-pyz bridges in the ab-plane to afford three-dimensional polymeric frameworks with PF(6)(-) and SbF(6)(-) counterions occupying the interior sites. A major difference between 1 and 2 is that the Ni-F-H bonds are bent (∼157°) in 1 but are linear in 2. Ligand field calculations (LFT) based on an angular overlap model (AOM), with comparison to the electronic absorption spectra, indicate greater π-donation of the HF(2)(-) ligand in 1 owing to the bent Ni-F-H bonds. Magnetic susceptibility data for 1 and 2 exhibit broad maxima at 7.4 and 15 K, respectively, and λ-like peaks in dχT/dT at 6.2 and 12.2 K that are ascribed to transitions to long-range antiferromagnetic order (T(N)). Muon-spin relaxation and specific heat studies confirm these T(N)'s. A comparative analysis of χ vs T to various 1D Heisenberg/Ising models suggests moderate antiferromagnetic interactions, with the primary interaction strength determined to be 3.05/3.42 K (1) and 5.65/6.37 K (2). However, high critical fields of 19 and 37.4 T obtained from low temperature pulsed-field magnetization data indicate that a single exchange constant (J(1D)) alone is insufficient to explain the data and that residual terms in the spin Hamiltonian, which could include interchain magnetic couplings (J(⊥)), as mediated by Ni-pyz-Ni, and single-ion anisotropy (D), must be considered. While it is difficult to draw absolute conclusions regarding the magnitude (and sign) of J(⊥) and D based solely on powder data, further support offered by related Ni(II)-pyz compounds and our LFT and density-functional theory (DFT) results lead us to a consistent quasi-1D magnetic description for 1 and 2.