Interplay between aminoalcohols and trifluoroacetate ligands: Ba–Cu heterometallics or cocrystallization of homometallics?

The reaction between copper powder and Ba(TFA)2 (TFA = CF3CO2) in methanol under air and in the presence of an aminoalcohol, afforded Cu(II) alkoxides and subsequent formation of heterometallic species or cocrystallization depending on the functional alcohol, dimethylaminoethanol (dmeaH) or N-dimethylaminoethanol (mdeaH2), respectively. A 1D-coordination polymer [Ba3Cu2(μ,η2-TFA)6(μ,η2-OC2H4NMe2)4(MeOH)2,2MeOH]∞, based on zig–zag chains was obtained with dmeaH, whereas mdeaH2 lead to [Ba(η1-TFA)2{MeN(C2H4OH)2}2] 2a and [Cu{MeN(C2H4O)(C2H4OH)}2] (2b) which cocrystallize as two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit cell.