Families of polynuclear manganese, cobalt, nickel and copper complexes stabilized by various forms of di-2-pyridyl ketone

The synthetic and structural chemistry of polynuclear manganese, cobalt, nickel and copper carboxylate complexes, stabilized by various forms of di-2-pyridyl ketone, is discussed. The structural diversity displayed by the described complexes stems from the ability of the doubly and singly deprotonated forms of the gem-diol form of di-2-pyridyl ketone, or the monoanion of the hemiacetal form of this ligand, to adopt a variety of coordination modes. The nuclearities of the clusters vary from four to fourteen. Perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing families are the "flywheel Cu-12 clusters, and the Co-9 and Ni-9 complexes in which the nine metal ions adopt a topology of two square pyramids sharing a common apex. A means of increasing the ground-state total spin value of a polynuclear 3d-metal cluster is also proposed. The approach is based on the replacement of hydroxo bridges, that most often propagate antiferromagnetic exchange interactions in clusters, by the end-on azido ligand, which is a well known ferromagnetic coupler. This approach involves "true" reactivity chemistry on pre-isolated clusters and the products are not undergone significant structural changes, except for the azido-for-hydroxo substitution, compared to the starting materials/clusters.