Exchange interactions and zero-field splittings in C3-symmetric Mn(III)6Fe(III): using molecular recognition for the construction of a series of high spin complexes based on the triplesalen ligand.

The reaction of the tris(tetradentate) triplesalen ligand H6talen(t-Bu2), which provides three salen-like coordination environments bridged in a meta-phenylene arrangement by a phloroglucinol backbone, with Mn(II) salts under aerobic conditions affords, in situ, the trinuclear Mn(III) triplesalen complexes [(talen(t-Bu2)){Mn(III)(solv)n}3]3+. These can be used as molecular building blocks in the reaction with [Fe(CN)6]3- as a hexaconnector to form the heptanuclear complex [{(talen(t-Bu2)){Mn(III)(solv)n}3}2{Fe(III)(CN)6}]3+ ([Mn(III)6Fe(III)]3+). The regular ligand folding observed in the trinuclear triplesalen complexes preorganizes the three metal ions for the reaction of three facially coordinated nitrogen atoms of a hexacyanometallate and provides a driving force for the formation of the heptanuclear complexes [M(t)6M(c)]n+ (M(t), terminal metal ion of the triplesalen building block; M(c), central metal ion of the hexacyanometallate) by molecular recognition, as has already been demonstrated for the single-molecule magnet [Mn(III)6Cr(III)]3+. [{(talen(t-Bu2))(Mn(III)(MeOH))3}2{Fe(III)(CN)6}][Fe(III)(CN)6] (1) was characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, FTIR, ESI- and MALDI-TOF-MS, Mössbauer spectroscopy, and magnetic measurements. The molecular structure of [Mn(III)6Fe(III)]3+ is overall identical to that of [Mn(III)6Cr(III)]3+ but exhibits a different ligand folding of the Mn(III) salen subunits with a helical distortion. The Mössbauer spectra demonstrate a stronger distortion from octahedral symmetry for the central [Fe(CN)6]3- in comparison to the ionic [Fe(CN)6]3-. At low temperatures in zero magnetic fields, the Mössbauer spectra show magnetic splittings indicative of slow relaxation of the magnetization on the Mössbauer time scale. Variable-temperature-variable-field and mu(eff) versus T magnetic data have been analyzed in detail by full-matrix diagonalization of the appropriate spin-Hamiltonian, consisting of isotropic exchange, zero-field splitting, and Zeeman interaction taking into account the relative orientation of the D tensors. Satisfactory reproduction of the experimental data has been obtained for parameters sets J(Mn-Mn) = -(0.85 +/- 0.15) cm(-1), J(Fe-Mn) = +(0.70 +/- 0.30) cm(-1), and D(Mn) = -(3.0 +/- 0.7) cm(-1). Comparing these values to those of [Mn(III)6Cr(III)]3+ provides insight into why [Mn(III)6Fe(III)]3+ is not a single-molecule magnet.