Diamine incorporated compounds derived from polymeric nickel(II) fumarates and oxalates: Crystal structure, spectral and thermal properties of [Ni(en)3](O2CCHCHCO2)·3H2O and [Ni(en)3](O2CCO2)

Lewis-base mediated fragmentation of polymeric nickel(II) fumarate and oxalate are attempted using chelating σ-donor diamines like ethylenediamine (en) and 1,3-diaminopropane (dap) in various conditions which yielded [Ni(en)₃](fum)·3H₂O (1), [Ni(en)₃](ox) (2), [Ni(dap)₂(fum)] (3) and [Ni(dap)(ox)]·2H₂O (4). While 1 and 2 are molecular products each containing octahedral [Ni(en)₃]²⁺ moieties and the anionic dicarboxylate species, 3 and 4 are dap-incorporated polymeric products. The fumarate derivative 1 containing [Ni(en)₃]²⁺ moieties crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/c with a = 17.899(4) Å, b = 11.747(2) Å, c = 10.748(2) Å, β = 125.59(3)°, V = 1837.7(6) ų, Z = 4, while the oxalate analogue 2 is seen to be in the trigonal space group P−31c with a = 8.8770(13) Å, b = 8.8770(13) Å, c = 10.482(2) Å, γ = 120°, V = 715.3(2) ų, Z = 2. The octahedral [Ni(en)₃] units in both 1 and 2 are seen to be strongly H-bonded to the dicarboxylate moieties through the coordinated en units leading to a three-dimensional network. However, in 1 the water molecules also take part in the H-bonding and contribute to the overall 3D structure. In both 1 and 2 the crystal packing is done with the [Ni(en)₃]²⁺ units with absolute configuration Λ(δδδ) and its mirror conformer with Δ configuration in exactly equal numbers. Spectral (IR and UV–Visible) and magnetic measurements were carried out and some of the ligand-field parameters like D_q, B and β were evaluated for all the four compounds. These values suggest the presence of octahedrally coordinated nickel(II) in all the four complexes. Spectral data suggest that 3 has the two chelating dap moieties and the fumarate coordinated in η¹ form through both its carboxylate moieties while 4 has one chelating dap and the oxalate moiety coordinated in η⁴-bis-chelating form. Though both 1 and 2 are made of the same type of [Ni(en)₃]²⁺ units their thermograms give entirely different thermal features; 1 showing three clearly successive and step-wise dissociation of each en unit while 2 having a combined loss of two en units in the first thermal step. The relevant thermodynamic and kinetic parameters like E_a and ΔS also could be evaluated for various thermal steps for the compounds 1–4 using Coats–Redfern equation.