Synthesis, structural characterization and chromotropism of a copper(II) complex containing a bidentate ligand
Accepted Manuscript Synthesis, structural characterization and chromotropism of a copper(II) complex containing a bidentate ligand Hamid Golchoubian, ...
Accepted Manuscript Synthesis, structural characterization and chromotropism of a copper(II) complex containing a bidentate ligand Hamid Golchoubian, Mahbobeh Tarahomi, Ehsan Rezaee, Giuseppe Bruno PII: DOI: Reference:
Please cite this article as: H. Golchoubian, M. Tarahomi, E. Rezaee, G. Bruno, Synthesis, structural characterization and chromotropism of a copper(II) complex containing a bidentate ligand, Polyhedron (2014), doi: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.poly.2014.09.035
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Synthesis, structural characterization and chromotropism of a copper(II) complex containing a bidentate ligand
Hamid Golchoubian*1, Mahbobeh Tarahomi1, Ehsan Rezaee1, Giuseppe Bruno2 1
Department of Chemistry, University of Mazandaran, Babol-sar; Iran. Postal Code 4741695447.
2
Dipartimento di Chimica Inorganica, Vill. S. Agata, Salita Sperone 31, Università di Messina 98166 Messina, Italy e-mail: [email protected]
Reprint requests to Dr. H. Golchoubian. Tel/Fax: (98)-1125342350, E-mail: [email protected] Abstract A
new
coordination
compound,
[Cu(L)2(OH2)](ClO4)2
where
L
=
N-(pyridin-2-
ylmethyl)propane-2-amine, was prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, molar conductance and IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. X-ray crystal analysis of the complex confirmed that the copper(II) ion has a distorted square pyramidal environment. The complex is chromotropic in solution. The chromotropic properties of the complex, including solvato-, thermo-, halo- and ionochromism, were investigated in detail. The complex displayed strongly pronounced reversible thermochromism in solution due to dissociation and of re-coordination of a water molecule.
1. Introduction Recently, the chromotropic behaviors of inorganic complexes have been investigated due to their potentially versatile applications [1-3]. Chromotropism is a reversible change in the color of a substance caused by some form of stimulus. One of the stimuli is temperature (thermochromism), which involves a change in color of a compound induced by temperature change. This phenomenon has many applications, such as temperature sensors, thermochromic pigments, temperature indicators, security and novelty printing, coating, as well as in thermography [4-7]. Solvatochromism is another important chromotropic property, which is defined as a reversible color change of a transition metal complex due to variation of a solvent‟s properties [8]. Recent studies have demonstrated that solvatochromic materials can be used as a Lewis-acid base color indicator [9] and to develope of optical sensor materials to monitor pollutant levels in the environment [10,11]. Solvatochromism also provides a quantitative method to identify the solvent behavior for different solvents and the function of solvents in physicochemical studies [12-23]. In addition to thermochromism and solvatochromism, ionochromism, a reversible color change caused by the addition of ions, is another important property of transition metal complexes which has attracted great attention due to their important applications in analytical chemistry and in high technology fields such as carbonless copying paper, direct thermal printing and sensor materials [7]. The pH effect on the visible absorption spectrum is defined as halochromism and can be regarded as one of the simplest external stimulations and can induce switching properties such as visible absorption for pH sensors. pH sensors are especially attractive since various living organisms, like enzymes, function within a narrow pH range, and their actions or behaviors can be explained as being “on-off” switched as a
function of pH [24]. The visual detection of CO2 gas [25] and the preparation of smart and interactive textiles [26] are other applications of halochromic dyes. However, the majority of pH sensors are based on organic molecules and less attention has been focused on metal complexes [27]. Among the transition metal complexes, copper(II) ions with a combination of chelate ligands have been recognized as the most encouraging candidates for practical applications of chromotropism due to their high thermodynamic stabilities, unsaturated coordination number and also the existence of simple and regular changes in their electronic spectra in accord to the power of the stimuli imposed on the system. In this work the new bidentate ligand N-(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)propane-2-amine and its copper(II) complex, as shown in Scheme 1, were prepared and fully characterized. The chromotropic behaviors of the complex, including thermochromism, solvatochromism, ionochromism and halochromism, were investigated. Based on our knowledge after our first report [28], this is the second time that a compound has shown all these properties collectively.
2. Experimental 2.1. Materials and methods All solvents were spectral-grade and all other reagents were used as received. Caution! Perchlorate salts are potentially explosive and should be handled with appropriate care. Elemental analyses were performed on a LECO CHN-600 elemental analyzer. Absolute metal percentages were determined with a Varian-spectra A-30/40 atomic absorption-flame spectrometer. The sample was dried to a constant weight under a high vacuum prior to analysis. Conductance measurements were made at 25 °C with a Jenway 400 conductance meter on 3
concentrations of 10.0 × 10-4, 6.00 × 10-4, 4.00 × 10-4 and 2.00 × 10-4 M of samples in selected solvents. Then for each solvent, a curve was plotted by drawing the molar conductance versus the concentration of the sample. The curve was then extrapolated to an infinitely dilute solution to obtain the molar conductance value. The infrared spectrum (potassium bromide disk) was recorded using a Bruker FT-IR instrument. 1H and
13
C NMR spectra were measured with a
Bruker 400 DRX Fourier Transform spectrometer at room temperature. The electronic absorption spectra were measured using Braic2100 model UV-Vis spectrophotometers. The buffer solution of pH = 7.2 for the ionochromic study was prepared by mixing 100 mL of ammonium chloride (1.1 M) and 100 mL of aqueous ammonia solution (0.05 M). The following solvents were used for the solvatochromic study: nitromethane (NM), nitrobenzene (NB), benzonitrile (BN), acetone (AC), acetonitrile (AN), propionitrile (PN), methanol (MeOH), ethanol (EtOH), water (H2O), dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and hexamethylphosphorictriamide (HMPA). 2.2. Synthesis 2.2.1. N-(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)propane-2-amine (L) A mixture of pyridine-2-carbaldehyde (2.7 ml, 30 mmol), tert-butylamine (3.5 ml, 30 mmol) and a few drops of acetic acid in methanol (35 ml) was prepared and refluxed for 10 min. The solvent was then evaporated under reduced pressure. NaBH4 (1.7 g, 45 mmol) was added gradually to the resultant yellow oil dissolved in methanol (30 mL). The resulting mixture was allowed to stand overnight. After heating the solution to near the boiling point, HCl (10 ml, 17 M) was added to it, while placing the solution in an ice bath, and then it was heated again to the boiling temperature. The mixture was then made alkaline by adding NaOH (4 M). The sodium borate
precipitate was removed by filtration. Evaporation of the solvent from the filtrate resulted in a yellow oil which was subsequently extracted with dichloromethane (3 15 mL). The combined CH2Cl2 fractions were dried over anhydrous Na2SO4. Evaporation of the solvent under reduced pressure resulted in the desired product as a brown oil. The yield was 45%. Selected IR data (ν/cm-1 using KBr disk): 3308 (m, N–H str.), 2964 (s, C–H str. aliphatic), 1595 (s, C=N str.), 1433 (s, CC str. aromatic), 1227 (s, NC str. aliphatic). 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3) : 1.15 (s, 9H, ((CH3)3C-), 1.92 (s, br, H, tert-Butyl-NH), 3.83 (s, 2H, CH2Py), 7.80 (d,d, J = 5.2, 1.6 Hz, H, Py), 7.27 (s, H, Py), 7.57 (t,d, J = 7.6, 2.0 Hz, H, Py), 8.48 (d, J = 4.4 Hz, H, Py). When one drop of D2O was added to the 1H NMR sample, the broad signal at 1.92 ppm disappeared. C NMR (100 MHz in CDCl3) : 29.06 (CH3CN), 48.53 (CH3CN), 50.48
13
(NHCH2Py), 121.71, 122.46, 136.41, 149.08, 160.46 (PyC). 2.2.2. Preparation of [Cu(L)2(OH2)](ClO4)2 To a solution of the ligand L (0.328 g, 2 mmol) in ethanol (6 mL) was slowly added Cu(ClO4)2·6H2O (0.37 g, 1 mmol) in ethanol (6 mL). The resultant purple color mixture was stirred for 2 h at room temperature. The desired compound precipitated from the solution as a blue solid. The compound was recrystallized by diffusion of diethylether into an acetonitrile solution. The typical yield was 43%. The crystals were suitable for X-ray crystallography. Anal. calcd for C20H34N4CuCl2O9 (MW= 608.96 g mol-1): C, 39.45; H, 5.63; N, 9.20; Cu, 10.44; Found: C, 39.72; H, 5.62; N, 9.22; Cu, 10.53 %. Selected IR data (ʋ/cm-1 using KBr disk): 3448 (m, O-H str.), 3275 (m, N-H str), 2974 (m C-H str.), 1649 (s, C=N str.), 1476 (m, N-H bend.), 1112 (s, O-ClO3 str.), 625 (s, O-ClO3 bend.), 427 (w, Cu-O str.), 449 (w, Cu-N str.). 2.3.1. X-ray structure determination
The X-ray measurements of the complex were made on a Bruker Apex-II CCD single crystal diffractometer at room temperature using graphite-monochromated Mo-Kα radiation. Data were collected and reduced by SMART and SAINT software [29] in the Bruker packages. The structure was solved by direct method [30,31] and subsequent Fourier difference techniques and refined using the full-matrix weighted least-squares procedure on F2 [32] with anisotropic thermal parameters for all non-hydrogen atoms. Several hydrogen atoms were located on the final difference map, the ligand H atoms were included in the refinement via the "riding model" method with the X---H bond geometry and the H isotropic displacement parameter depending on the parent X atom. The oxygen displacement ellipsoids are very large due to a significant rotational disorder of the perchlorate anion, but each attempt to treat it by a suitable overlap of two rotated conformations was unsuccessful. The last difference Fourier maps have shown the largest electron density residuals around the disordered perchlorate anion. A summary of the crystal data and structure determination is reported in Table 1.
3. Results and discussion 3.1 Synthesis The ligand was prepared by the condensation of equimolar amounts of tert-butylamine and pyridine-2-carbaldehyde and further reduction of the resulting diimine by sodium borohydride. The copper(II) complex was synthesized by mixing Cu(ClO4)·6H2O and the ligand in a molar ratio of 1:2, respectively, in ethanol. Thermochromism and solvatochromism in coordination compounds
are
sensitive
to
the
counter
ion
used,
for
example,
the
bis(N,N-
diethylethylenediamine)copper(II) complex showed distinctive thermochromism only with the perchlorate counter ion amongst the seventeen counter ions tested. [33-34]. Moreover, our 6
pervious works demonstrated that solvatochromism is also sensitive to the nature of the counter ion used [1,15,20]. As a result, in this research the perchlorate anion was used as the counter ion.
3.2. Characterization The IR spectrum of the free ligand has indicator bands which are apparent with minor shifts in the complex. The presence of a sharp signal at 3449 cm-1 in the complex can be assigned to the O-H stretching frequency of the coordinated water molecule. Dependence on coordination is also exhibited by an intense and narrow band occurring at 3280 cm-1 which is associated with the N-H vibration; this band is broader and observed at around 3309 cm-1 in the free ligand. As the lone pairs of electrons of the donor nitrogen atoms become involved in the metal-ligand bond, the transfer of electron density to the metal and the subsequent polarization of the ligands involves electron depopulation of the N-H bond, which culminates in a shift to lower frequencies [35]. The presence of the ClO4- group was declared by an intense band at around 1100 cm-1 and a medium band at 630 cm-1, which are attributed to the anti-symmetric stretching and antisymmetric bending vibration modes, respectively [36]. The molar conductance of the complex measured in some solvents with different polarities is presented in Table 2. The standard values of 1:2 electrolytes in the respective solvents are shown in the same table [37]. The conductivity data shows that the complex is almost consistent with a 1:2 electrolyte.
3.2.3. X-ray structure The complex was crystallized in the monoclinic space group P21/n. A perspective view together with the atom labelling scheme for the complex is given in Fig. 1 and selected bond parameters
are given in Table 3. The molecular structure of the complex consists of the [CuL2(H2O)]2+ cation and two perchlorate anions. According to Addison et al., [38] the distortion of the square pyramidal geometry towards trigonal bipyramidal can be described by geometrical parameter = - /60, ( = 0 for ideal SP and 1 for ideal TBP), where and are the bond angles involving the trans donor atoms in the basal plane. The value is 0.053 in the complex, which indicates that the coordination geometry around the copper(II) ion is only slightly distorted from squarepyramidal towards a trigonal bipyramidal structure. The four coordinating atoms making up the basal plane are two nitrogen atoms of the amine moieties (N(1) and N(3)) and two nitrogen atoms of the pyridyl groups (N(2) and N(4)), while the apical site is occupied by one oxygen atom of a water molecule. The basal atoms are nearly coplanar; the deviations from the leastsquares plane through the CuN4 atoms are N(1) -0.032, N(2) 0.032, N(3) -0.032, N(4) 0.032 and Cu(1) 0.148 Å. The two unsymmetrical chelate ligands oriented in trans positions. Due to steric hindrance of the tert-butyl groups, the water molecule in the apex is tilted (O(1)-Cu-N(1) = 85.42(9) °). The bite angles of the five-membered rings N(3)-Cu-N(4) and N(1)-Cu-N(2) are 81.47(9) and 80.98(9) , respectively. The bond lengths of amine moieties (Cu-N(1) and CuN(3)) are slightly longer than to the corresponding values of the copper(II) amine complexes CuL1 and CuL2 (L1 = N,N′-dimethyl-bis(pyridine-2-ylmethyl)-1,2-diaminoethane, L2= N,N′dimethyl-bis(pyridine-2-ylmethyl)-1,2-diaminopropane) [39,40]. According to the CSD [41], the average bond distances are 1.971 and 2.031 Å for Cu(II)-amines. This lengthening obviously originates from steric crowding of the tert-butyl groups attached to N(1) and N(3). The torsion angles of N(1)-C(5)-C(6)-N(2) and N(3)-C(15)-C(16)-N(4) are 25.63 and 26.86 o, respectively. The apical bond length, Cu-O(H2O), of 2.382(3) Å is much longer than usual due to the JahnTeller effect for a d9 electronic configuration.
There are four O-H···O and Cl(ClO4) and two N-H···O(ClO4) hydrogen bonds in the crystal structure of the complex (Table 4). The O-H of the water molecule and N-H of the amine moieties act as proton donors, while uncoordinated oxygen atoms of the perchlorates act as proton acceptors. The compound is assembled into a 3D architecture by these hydrogen bonds, as shown in Figure 2
3.5. Thermochromism Room temperature UV-vis absorption spectra of the complex in solution demonstrate two bands, one in the UV region which is assigned to a ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) involving the pyridine ligand transition, and the second one in the visible region that is due to a d-d transition of the copper(II) ion. The latter band is solvent dependent, as will be discussed in the subsequent section, but the former in not. The complex is thermochromic in solvents with high boiling points (above 80 °C), such as DMSO, DMF, acetonitrile and benzonitrile. The visible spectra of the complex were studied at temperature of 25 to 100 C in DMSO and up to 90 C in DMF and acetonitrile. In the solvents DMF and acetonitrile, the complex demonstrates reversible thermochromism, such that the original blue color of the solution gradually turns to green (see Fig. S1 and S2 in supplementary content). However, the reversible thermochromism of the compound in DMSO involves a gradual change in color from blue to green up to 90 C and to brown by increasing the temperatures to 100 C, as illustrated in Fig. 3. The color change occurs
along with the appearance of a new absorption band at about 480 nm together with an isosbestic point at 621 nm in DMSO, 566 nm in DMF and 570 nm in acetonitrile. The intensity of the new band increases with the rise of temperature, while the d-d band becomes weaker. It is very probable that this phenomena corresponds to loss of the coordinated water molecule from the copper(II) complex. When the complex is dissolved in a solvent at room temperature the empty coordination site of the complex is occupied rapidly by a solvent molecule, evidenced by being solvatochromic. Upon heating the solution, the weakly coordinated water molecule is replaced by solvent molecules. However, this process is reversible and after cooling the solution to room temperature the water molecule that exists in the solution re-coordinates to the copper ion and causes the reappearance of original blue color. The reverse process is much slower than the forward reaction and it takes several days for the full development of the original color. The decline in the rate of the reverse process could be due to the presence of a large number of solvent molecules in the solution which hinders the re-coordination of the water molecule to the copper center. This is supported by this fact that the compound is not thermochromic in aqueous solution. Moreover, addition of a few drops of water into the heated solution causes a fast redevelopment of the original blue color. The presence of a distinct isosbestic point suggests that this phenomenon is due to the simple solvation equilibrium presented in Scheme 2. Appearance of the green color is due to the emergence of the new band at 480 nm, which is almost irrespective of the nature of solvent used. This band might be attributed to the charge transfer to the solvent molecule (LMCT). However, the development of a brown color at 100 C in DMSO is simply the result of the variation in the band width at 480 nm.
3.4. Solvatochromism The compound is soluble in a variety of solvents and is solvatochromic. The color of the complex changes from blue to green, as depicted in Fig. 4 and Table 5. The origin of the color change is due to a change in the d–d band of the Cu(II) center. The shift in the d–d band by alteration of the solvent indicates a change in the coordination geometry around the copper ion. It also indicates that the solvent molecule coordinates to the empty coordination site of the central metal ion and thus the ligand field around the metal changes, which results in the shift of the absorption wavelength. As changing the solvent molecules changes the color of the complex, it can be concluded that the solvent molecules are weakly coordinated due to a strong Jahn–Teller effect of the Cu(II) center with a d9 configuration.
The spectrum was also measured in the solid-state (powder in Nujol mull), which showed a broad maximum at 560 nm. This spectral pattern is typical of five-coordinate copper(II) complexes with a SP-based geometry [42], which is coincident with its stereochemistry in the crystalline state. 3.6. Ionochromism The interactions of sodium halide (Cl-, Br- and I-,) and sodium pseudo halide (CN-,OCN-, SCNand N3-) with the complex were investigated by visible spectroscopy in buffer solution (pH = 7.2). Upon addition of CN-, the complex showed the evidently ionochromic behavior and the color of the solution changed from blue to colorless, while the solution turned green when N3was added. The other ions induced basically a weak spectral change, as shown in Fig. 5. These results make the complex promising for application in cyanide and azide sensors. The interaction 11
between the complex and a mixture of anions were also investigated. An aqueous solution of a mixture of the aforementioned anions at a concentration of 0.06 mol L-1 was added to a buffer solution of the complex (310-3 mol L-1) and its visible spectrum was recorded. The color of the mixture turned colorless, indicating that none of the anions were able to compete effectively with the CN- ion, in accordance with the decolorization of the resulting solution. In another experiment, the reaction was carried out under the same reaction conditions, but excluding the cyanide ion. It was found that the color of the original solution turned from blue to green within a few seconds. These results indicate that the complex is highly sensitive and selective towards CN- and N3- anions. The color changes might be due to substitution of the weakly coordinated water molecule by the anions which causes change in the ligand field strength around the copper(II) ion. However, in the case where the cyanide ion was added, a hypochromic shift (decrease in intensity) was observed and the d-d band of the complex disappeared. This is due to the strong coordination power of the cyanide anion, which destroys the original complex by formation of a copper(II) cyanide complex that decomposes quickly into copper(I) cyanide and cyanogen [43].