Spectroscopic investigations of new binuclear transition metal complexes of Schiff bases derived from 4,6-diacetylresorcinol and 3-amino-1-propanol or 1,3-diamino-propane.

The bifunctional carbonyl compound; 4,6-diacetylresorcinol (DAR) serves as precursor for the formation of different Schiff base ligands, which are either di- or tetra-basic with two symmetrical sets of either O2N or N2O tridentate chelating sites. The condensation of 4,6-diacetylresorcinol with 3-amino-1-propanol (3-AP) or 1,3-diaminopropane (DAP), yields the corresponding hexadentate Schiff base ligands, abbreviated as H4La and H2Lb, respectively. The structures of these ligands were elucidated by elemental analyses, IR, mass, 1H NMR and electronic spectra. Reaction of the Schiff base ligands with copper(II), nickel(II), cobalt(II), zinc(II), cadmium(II), iron(III), chromium(III), vanadyl(IV) and uranyl(VI) ions in 1:2 molar ratio afforded the corresponding transition metal complexes. A variety of binuclear complexes for the metal complexes were obtained with the ligands in its di- or tetra-deprotonated forms. The structures of the newly prepared complexes were identified by elemental analyses, infrared, electronic, mass, 1H NMR and ESR spectra as well as magnetic susceptibility measurements and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The bonding sites are the azomethine and amino nitrogen atoms, and phenolic and alcoholic oxygen atoms. The metal complexes exhibit different geometrical arrangements such as square planar, tetrahedral, square pyramid and octahedral arrangement.