Spectral and structural studies of nickel(II) complexes of salicylaldehyde 3-azacyclothiosemicarbazones

Mononuclear nickel(II) complexes with two ONS donor thiosemicarbazone ligands {salicylaldehyde 3-hexamethyleneiminyl thiosemicarbazone [H₂L¹] and salicylaldehyde 3-tetramethyleneiminyl thiosemicarbazone [H₂L²]} have been prepared and physico-chemically characterized. IR and electronic spectra of the complexes have been obtained. The thiosemicarbazones bind to the metal as dianionic ONS donor ligands in all the complexes except in [Ni(HL¹)₂] (1). In compound 1, the ligand is coordinated as a monoanionic (HL⁻) one. The magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate that all the complexes are mononuclear and are diamagnetic. The complexes were given the formulae [Ni(HL¹)₂] (1), [NiL¹py] (2), [NiL¹α-pic] (3), [NiL¹γ-pic] · H₂O (4), [NiL²py] (5) and [NiL²γ-pic] (6). The structures of compounds 2 and 3 have been solved by single crystal X-ray crystallography and were found to be distorted square planar in geometry with coordination of azomethine nitrogen, thiolato sulfur, phenolato oxygen and pyridyl nitrogen atoms.