An oxalato-bridged dimetallic heptanuclear [K5IFe2III] complex anion with guanidinium as counter cation: Synthesis, crystal structure, Hirshfeld surface analysis and magnetism

An oxalato-bridged heterometallic heptanuclear [K5IFe2III] hybrid salt, (CH6N3)[K5(H2O)4Fe2(C2O4)6] (1) (CH6N3+ = guanidinium cation) has been synthesized and characterized by elemental and thermal analyses, IR spec-troscopy, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, EPR and SQUID magnetometry. The asymmetric unit in 1 is composed of a dimetallic heptanuclear [K5(H2O)4Fe2(C2O4)6]anionic complex and a guanidinium CH6N3+ cation insuring the charge compensation. Each Fe3+ center in the anionic complex is six-coordinate in a distorted octahedron defined by three chelating oxalato(2-) ligands. In contrast, the coordination numbers for K+ centers range from 7 to 9. The structural feature of focal interest in 1 is formation of an extended anionic network encapsulating guanidinium cations. This structure can be considered a sheet-MOF, where metal ions and oxalates (linkers) form infinite 2D units. The 3-D supramolecular architecture is stabilized by O-H & BULL;& BULL;& BULL;O and N-H & BULL;& BULL;& BULL;O hydrogen bonds linking polymeric oxalato-bridged anionic assemblies and organic cations. The thermal studies confirmed the anhydrous character of salt 1 and showed a three-step decomposition to yield a mixture of Fe2O3 and K2O as final residue. EPR spectrum of 1 is in accordance with the oxidation state + 3 of the iron center in an octahedral environment. Temperature-dependence susceptibility measurements investigated in the temperature range 2-300 K revealed weak antiferromagnetic coupling at low temperatures in salt 1. The distributions of different types of intermolecular interactions in the crystal structure were quantified by Hirshfeld surface analysis and their associated fingerprint plots.