Synthesis and properties of the heterospin (S1=S2=1/2) radical-ion salt bis(mesitylene)molybdenum(I)[1,2,5]thiadiazolo[3,4c][1,2,5]thiadiazolidyl

Low-temperature interaction of [1,2,5]thiadiazolo[3,4-c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (1) with MoMes2 (Mes = mesitylene/1,3,5-trimethylbenzene) in tetrahydrofuran gave the heterospin (S1 = S2 = 1/2) radical-ion salt [MoMes2]+[1]− (2) whose structure was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD). The structure revealed alternating layers of the cations and anions with the Mes ligands perpendicular, and the anions tilted by 45°, to the layer plane. At 300 K the effective magnetic moment of 2 is equal to 2.40 μB (theoretically expected 2.45 μB) and monotonically decreases with lowering of the temperature. In the temperature range 2–300 K, the molar magnetic susceptibility of 2 is well-described by the Curie–Weiss law with parameters C and θ equal to 0.78 cm3 K mol–1 and −31.2 K, respectively. Overall, the magnetic behavior of 2 is similar to that of [CrTol2]+[1]− and [CrCp*2]+[1]−, i.e., changing the cation [MAr2]+ 3d atom M = Cr (Z = 24) with weak spin–orbit coupling (SOC) to a 4d atom M = Mo (Z = 42) with stronger SOC does not affect macroscopic magnetic properties of the salts. For the XRD structure of salt 2, parameters of the Heisenberg spin-Hamiltonian were calculated using the broken-symmetry DFT and CASSCF approaches, and the complex 3D magnetic structure with both the ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AF) exchange interactions was revealed with the latter as dominating. Salt 2 is thermally unstable and slowly loses the Mes ligands upon storage at ambient temperature. Under the same reaction conditions, interaction of 1 with MoTol2 (Tol = toluene) proceeded with partial loss of the Tol ligands to afford diamagnetic product