Electroactive benzothiazole hydrazones and their [Mo6O19]2- derivatives: promising building blocks for conducting molecular materials.

The electroactive benzothiazole hydrazone AMBTH-H(2), a new member of the 2,2'-azino-bis(N-alkylbenzothiazole) family, was synthesised in a five-step procedure and characterised by using X-ray diffraction along with two intermediates and the N-methylbenzothiazole hydrazone MBTH-H(2). Both AMBTH-H(2) and MBTH-H(2) were coupled to [Mo(6)O(19)](2-) in acetonitrile in the presence of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide and dimethylaminopyridine to give two new diazoalkane-hexamolybdates, which were isolated as tetrabutylammonium salts and characterised by using IR, UV/Vis and NMR spectroscopies, cyclic voltammetry and, for one of them, X-ray diffraction. The packing arrangement molecules in crystals of AMBTH-H(2), the redox features of the AMBTH-hexamolybdate hybrid together with a good electronic communication between the organic pi system and the molybdenum centres make these compounds very promising blocks for the synthesis of conducting molecular materials.