Two 1-D chain-like complexes based on 1,4-bis(imidazol-1-yl)-butane and 4-methylbenzoate: Synthesis, structure and magnetic properties

This paper reports two 1-D chain-like compounds, namely, Co(mb)2(bimb)0.5 (1) and Ni(mb)2(bimb)0.5 (2) (mb = 4-methylbenzoate and bimb = 1,4-bis(imidazol-1-yl)-butane), which have been obtained via hydrothermal reaction and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, IR and elemental analysis. The formations of 1–2 are based on the linkage between the paddle-wheel shaped secondary building block units (SBUs) through long-chain bimb ligands. Compound 1 exhibits ferrimagnetic-like behavior, while compound 2 undergoes an unusual field-induced metamagnetic phase transition.