Design and properties of phenoxo-bridged binuclear, trinuclear and tetranuclear macrocyclic complexes

Multinuclear complexes derived from binucleating and tetranucleating macro-cyclic ligands of the types tetraaminodiphenol and octaaminotetraphenol are reported. The effect of electronic interactions between metal centres held in close proximity by the macro-cyclic ligands on chemical reactivities, redox and magnetic properties of the complexes is discussed. Systematic changes in the structure and stereochemistry of the metal complexes brought about by variation of the auxiliary axial ligands are examined. A magneto-structural relation for the binuclear nickel (II) complexes implicating linear dependence of spin-exchange integral (J) on Ni-O(phenoxide)-Ni bridge angle or Ni...Ni separation is discussed