Assembling {CuIILnIIIOsIII} heterotrimetallic octanuclear complexes and 1D coordination polymers from the same molecular modules

Four 3d-5d-4f heterotrimetallic complexes have been assembled from {CuII2LnIII} building-blocks and the Os(III) metalloligand, [Os(CN)6]3−. Two of the coordination assemblies are octanuclear metallocycles, [{(Cu(valdmpn))4Ln2(H2O)2}{Os(CN)6}2]⋅3CH3OH⋅4H2O⋅CH3CN (Ln = Gd 1, Tb 2), while the two others, 1∞[{(Cu(valdmpn))2Ln(CH3OH)}{Os(CN)6}]⋅5CH3OH⋅H2O (Ln = Gd 3, Tb 4), are one-dimensional (1D) coordination polymers (H2valdmpn is the Schiff base resulted from the condensation of o-vanillin with 2,2-dimethyl-propylenediamine). The final type of assembly (molecular 0D versus 1D) is clearly influenced by the nature of the employed solvents. The magnetic properties of the four compounds have been investigated revealing the expected ferromagnetic CuII-LnIII magnetic interactions in the {(Cu(valdmpn))2Ln(CH3OH)} moiety and weak CuII-NC-OsIII antiferromagnetic coupling (JCu-Os/kB ≈ −0.6 K) in the gadolinium based complexes 1 and 3.