Syntheses and structures of copper complexes of 3-(6-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)pyridin-2-yl)pyrazol-1-ide and their excellent performance in the syntheses of nitriles and aldehydes.

Reactions of a pincer ligand 2-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)-6-(1H-pyrazol-3-yl)pyridine (pzpypzH) with Cu(NO3)2, Cu(ClO4)2, CuSO4, CuCl2 or CuI produced three dinuclear Cu(ii) complexes [{Cu(NO3)}(μ-pzpypz)]2 (1), [{Cu(ClO4)}(μ-pzpypz)]2 (2), [Cu2(μ-SO4)(μ-pzpypz)2]·2MeOH (3·2MeOH), one mononuclear Cu(ii) complex [CuCl2(pzpypzH)] (4) and one trinuclear Cu(i)/Cu(ii) complex [(ICu)(μ-I)2Cu2(μ-pzpypz)2] (5), respectively. Treatment of 4 with two equiv. of AgNO3 in DMF also gave rise to 1.