Influencing the Stability of Diaminomethane‐Containing Azacrown Ether Ligands in the Presence of Transition‐Metal Ions

The evaluation of a new azacrown ether ligand bis{[3-(pyridin-4-yl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl]methyl}diaza-18-crown-6 (b3pd), which contains pendant p-pyridylpyrazole arms connected by diaminomethane linkers, identified a tendency to undergo retro-Mannich fragmentation in the presence of transition-metal ions. However, treatment of b3pd with potassium perchlorate or potassium iodide prior to complexation with transition-metal ions imparted a resistance to fragmentation, such that crystallisation of coordination polymers from concentrated solutions after several weeks was possible. Four solid-state structures containing Kb3pd were isolated: a perchlorate salt (1), a divalent manganese 1D coordination polymer [Mn(Kb3pd)(DMF)4]·2ClO4·I3 (2, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide), a cuprous 2D coordination network [Cu2(Kb3pd)2(I3)(I)3]·3H2O (3) and a cuprous 1D coordination polymer [Cu(Kb3pd)(I)2] (4). Additionally, the retro-Mannich process was investigated by in situ FTIR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, crystallography and by the isolation of a cobalt complex ligated by a partially fragmented ligand, mono{[3-(pyridin-4-yl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl]methyl}diaza-18-crown-6 (m3pd). The composition of the cobalt complex was found to be [CoCl3(Hm3pd)]·H2O (5).