First oxalate-bridged pentanuclear [Cu(L)]3[Mn(ox)3]2 complexes: synthesis and magnetism

Two novel CuII3MnIII2 pentanuclear oxalato complexes have been synthesized and characterized, namely [Cu(L)]3[Mn(ox)3]2 [L = 1,10-phenanthroline(phen) and 2,2-bipyridyl(bipy)] where ox is the oxalate dianion. Based on i.r., elemental analyses and electronic spectra, thesecomplexesareassignedtoextendedoxalato-bridged structures consisting of two manganese(III) ions and three copper(II) ions, in which each manganese(III) has a distorted octahedral environment and each copper(II) ion a distorted square pyramidal environment. The temperature dependance of the magnetic susceptibility for [Cu(phen)]3[Mn(ox)3]2·4H2O was measured over the 4.2–300K range and the observed data indicates antiferromagnetic spin exchange interaction between the CuII and MnIII ions.