Metal complexes of pyrimidine derived ligands – Syntheses,characterization and X-ray crystal structures of Ni(II), Co(III) and Fe(III) complexes of Schiff base ligands derived from S-methyl/S-benzyl dithiocarbazate and 2-S-methylmercapto-6-methylpyrimidine-4-carbaldehyde

Two new pyrimidine based NNS tridentate Schiff base ligands S-methyl-3-((2-S-methyl-6-methyl-4-pyrimidyl)methyl)dithiocarbazate [HL₁] and S-benzyl-3-((2-S-methyl-6-methyl-4-pyrimidyl)methyl)dithiocarbazate [HL₂] have been synthesised by the 1:1 condensation of 2-S-methylmercapto-6-methylpyrimidine-4-carbaldehyde and S-methyl/S-benzyl dithiocarbazate. A Ni(II) complex of HL₁ and Co(III) and Fe(III) complexes of HL₂ have been prepared and characterized by elemental analyses, molar conductivities, magnetic susceptibilities and spectroscopic studies. All the bis-chelate complexes have a distorted octahedral arrangement with an N₄S₂ chromophore around the central metal ion. Each ligand molecule binds the metal ion using the pyrimidyl and azomethine nitrogen and thiolato sulfur atoms (except in the nickel complex, one ligand molecule uses the thione sulfur in lieu of thiolato sulfur atom). In the Ni(II) complex, one of the ligand molecules behaves as a neutral tridentate and the other molecule functions as a uninegative tridentate, whereas in the Co(III) and Fe(III) complexes, the ligand molecules behave as monoanionic tridentate. All the complexes were analyzed by single crystal X-ray diffraction and significant differences concerning the distortion from an octahedral geometry of the coordination environment were observed.