New tri- and tetranuclear transition metal spin clusters incorporating a versatile polydentate Schiff base ligand

A trinuclear Fe(III) complex [Fe3(OAc)3L3] (1), a tetranuclear Mn(III) complex [Mn4Cl4L4] (2) and a tetranuclear Ni(II) complex [Ni4(MeOH)4L4] (3) have been synthesized from the reaction of simple metal salts with ligands derived from salicylidene-2-ethanolamine (H2L). Structural characterization of the three complexes reveals distinctly different topologies, despite the similar coordination modes of the ligand L2−. Preliminary magnetochemical studies have been performed and reveal spin ground states of S=1/2,8 and 4 for complexes 1, 2 and 3, respectively.