Coordination complexes of reduced organic dye isoviolanthrone with transition metals (MnII) and lanthanides (DyIII, GdIII, NdIII)

The reduction of a vat dye isoviolanthrone to the dianion state in the presence of metal-containing compounds yields binuclear coordination complexes. Two manganese(II) acetylacetonate units coordinate to isoviolanthrone2− (L) in {(K+)cryptand}2{[MnII(acac)2]2⋅L}2– (1) with an average Mn–O bond length of 2.022(2) Å. Dysprosium(III)- or gadolinium(III)-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedionate (TMHD) units form {(K+)cryptand}2{[MIII(TMHD)3]2⋅L}2− (M = DyIII for 2 and GdIII for 3) with the length of the M−O bonds of 2.193(3) and 2.254(4) Å. Tris(cyclopentadienyl)neodymium(III) forms {(Cs+)cryptand}2{[Cp3NdIII]2⋅L}2–⋅C6H4Cl2 (4) with the longest Nd–O bonds of 2.264(2) and 2.308(2) Å. The formation of isoviolanthrone2− is supported by their optical spectra, disappearance of the bands of the CO vibrations in the IR-spectra as well as elongation of the CO bonds in 1–4. High-spin (S = 5/2) MnII atoms in 1 have exchange interaction of J =  − 0.086 cm−1 at g = 1.98. Lanthanides have weaker coupling through isoviolanthrone2− in 2 and 3 with J =  − 0.03 cm−1 for DyIII and J close to zero for GdIII. Complex 4 with two Cp3NdIII species demonstrates the χMT value of 2.33 emu⋅K/mol at 300 K, and this value is lower than the theoretically calculated value of 3.39 emu⋅K/mol. The decrease of χMT is observed in the whole 300–1.9 K range providing negative Weiss temperatures of –32 K. That is explained by magnetic behavior of Cp3NdIII similar to pristine Cp3NdIII. Complexes comprising MnII, GdIII, and NdIII show electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signals. Zero-field splitting (ZFS) is observed from MnII and GdIII allowing the estimation of zero-field splitting parameter D as − 0.049 and E close to 0 cm−1 for 1 and − 0.033 and − 0.020 cm−1 for 3. Complex 4 with NdIII manifests an asymmetric two-component EPR signal without ZFS. Weak antiferromagnetic couplings are explained by diamagnetism of isoviolanthrone2− and rather long distances between the metal centers of 15.47–16.25 Å. This study shows that the dianions of organic dyes are promising bidentate ligands for preparation of coordination complexes with d- and f-block metal ions.