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.