Synthesis and reactions of N-heterocycle functionalised variants of heterometallic {Cr7Ni} rings.

Here we present a series of linked cage complexes of functionalised variants of the octametallic ring {Cr7Ni} with the general formula [(n)Pr2NH2][Cr7NiF8(O2C(t)Bu)15(O2CR)], where HO2CR is a N-heterocycle containing carboxylic acid. These compounds are made by reacting [(n)Pr2NH2][Cr7NiF8(O2C(t)Bu)15(O2CR)] with a variety of simple metal salts and metal dimers. The carboxylic acids studied include iso-nicotinic acid, 3-(4-pyridyl)acrylic acid and 4-pyridazine carboxylic acid. These new linked cage complexes have been studied structurally and the study highlights the versatility of functionalised {Cr7Ni} as a Lewis base ligand. As {Cr7Ni} is a putative molecular electron spin qubit this work contributes to our understanding of the chemistry that might be required to assemble molecular spin qubits.