Synthesis and characterization of mononuclear copper(II) and dinuclear cadmium(II) complexes with di-(2-picolyl)sulfide

The reaction of CuCl₂ · 2H₂O and CdCl₂ with di-(2-picolyl)sulfide (dps) leads to the formation of mononuclearcopper(II) and binuclear cadmium(II) complexes, [Cu(dps)Cl₂] · H₂O (1) and [(dps)(Cl)Cd^II(μ-Cl)₂Cd^II(Cl)(dps)] (2). The copper atom in (1) is coordinated to one sulfur and two nitrogen atoms from the dps ligand and two chlorides in a distorted square-pyramidal environment. Complex (2) has two distorted octahedra sharing the basal edge that contain the bridging chloro ligands, each of which resides at a center of inversion. Cyclic voltammetricdata show that (1) undergoes two reversible one-electron waves corresponding to Cu^II/Cu^III and Cu^II/Cu^I processes. However, cyclic voltammetry of (2) gives two irreversible reduced waves.