A family of tri- and dimetallic pyridine dicarboxamide cryptates: unusual O,N,O-coordination and facile access to secondary coordination sphere hydrogen bonding interactions.

A series of tri- and dimetallic metal complexes of pyridine dicarboxamide cryptates are reported in which changes to the base and metal source result in diverse structure types. Addition of strong bases, such as KH or KN(SiMe3)2, followed by divalent metal halides allows direct access to trinuclear complexes in which each metal center is coordinated by a dianionic N,N,N-chelate of each arm. These complexes bind a guest K(+) cation within the central cavity in a trigonal planar coordination environment.

Preorganized assembly of three iron(II) or manganese(II) β-diketiminate complexes using a cyclophane ligand.

A trinucleating cyclophane bearing three β-diketimine arms, and the corresponding iron(II) and manganese(II) complexes have been synthesized and characterized. The three metal ions are oriented towards the internal void space, and are coordinated by a N2Br2 donor set, in which a unique combination of μ(3), μ, and terminal coordination modes are observed for the halide donors.