Syntheses, structures, and magnetic properties of salen type Cu-Gd dimer and hexamer complexes with strong ferromagnetic interactions

Two salen type heteronuclear Cu-Gd complexes, namely, [((GdCuLCl3)-Cl-1(CH3OH)(2)] (1) and [(Gd2Cu4L4Cl2)-Cl-2(OH)](PF6)(3) (2) (H2L1=N,N'-bis(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane and H2L2 = N,N'-bis(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)-1,3-diaminopropane) have been isolated. X-ray crystallographic analysis shows that 1 is of a typical neutral heterodinuclear Cu-Gd structure, while 2 features an unusual ionic hexanuclear Cu-Gd structure. Magnetic analysis reveals the dominant ferromagnetic interactions within the clusters. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.