Nucleophilic addition of water and alcohols to dicyanonitrosomethanide: ligands with diverse bonding modes in magnetically coupled d-block complexes

Ligands resulting from the transition-metal-promoted nucleophilic addition of water or an alcohol to dicyanonitrosomethanide ions (dcnm) have been utilised in the formation of a large series of polynuclear complexes. Addition of water to dcnm results in formation of carbarnoylcyanonitrosomethanide (ccnm); deprotonation of this ligand gives amidocarbonyl(cyano)nitrosomethanide (acnm), which has been incorporated into the trinuclear complex [Cu-3(acnm)(2)(dmae)(2)(H2O)(2)] [dmae = 2-(dimethylamino)ethoxide] (1) which shows strong antiferromagnetic coupling with an exchange coupling constant, J = -500 cm(-1).