Self‐Assembly and Characterisation of Grid‐Type Iron( II ), Cobalt( II ) and Zinc( II ) Complexes

The reaction of the ligands 5 and 6, containing two tridentate binding units, with iron(II), cobalt(II) and zinc(II) leads to the self‐assembly of supramolecular architectures of [2 × 2] grid type containing four ions in octahedral coordination sites. The grid‐type structures have been assigned on the basis of the spectroscopic data in solution, and confirmed in the solid state in the case of complexes 6b and 6c by X‐ray crystallography. The latter study revealed that each metal ion is situated in a distorted octahedral coordination environment comprising two N,N,O ligand donor sets. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2003)