Coordinative Behavior of a New Hydroxynaphthanyl Sulphonamide Tridentate Schiff Base Towards First Row Late Transition Metal (LTM) and Post-Transitional Metal Atoms Zn and Cd: A Crystallographic and Computational Study

The electrochemical oxidation of anodic metal (cobalt, nickel, zinc or cadmium) in a cell containing an acetonitrile solution of the ligand (E)-N-(2-(((2-hydroxynaphthalen-1-yl)methylene)amino)phenyl)-4-methylbenzenesulphonamide (H2L) affords complexes with the general formula [ML] (M = Co, Ni, Zn and Cd). Additionally, it was possible to obtain complexes with the general formula [MLL′] when L′ = 2,2-bipyridine (2,2-bpy), 4,4-bipyridine (4-4′-bpy) or 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) was present in the electrolytic cell. All of the compounds obtained have been characterized via microanalysis, IR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, UV–visible spectroscopy and, in the case of diamagnetic compounds, via 1H NMR spectroscopy. Further structural and electronic characteristics of these adducts have been obtained via DFT simulations. The compounds NEt4[CoL2] (1), [NiL(H2O)] (2), [NiL(CH3CN)(H2O)]2 (3), [Ni2L2(4,4′-bpy)] (4), [Zn2L2(MeOH)2] (5) and [ZnL(2,2′-bpy)](CH3CN) (6) have been characterized via X-ray diffraction. In this paper, we present a detailed study of the different behavior of the above-mentioned ligand depending on the metal and/or the presence of ancillary ligands.