Conformational variety of flexible mono-dentate ligands in coordination compounds: influence of π-involving interactions.

The effect of intermolecular interactions on the conformational variety of flexible mono-dentate ligands in coordination compounds has been investigated through the preparation of two series of mercury(ii) complexes. In this regard, the molecular and structural architecture of eight complexes, [HgCl2(L(amide-Cl))2] (), [HgCl2(L(amide-Br))2] (), [HgBr2(L(amide-Br))2] (), and [HgI2(L(amide-Br))2] (), as the first series and [HgBr2(L(imine-Cl))2] (), [HgBr2(L(imine-Br))2] (), [HgI2(L(imine-Cl))]n (), and [HgI2(L(imine-Br))]n (), as the second series, using two kind of flexible ligands, N-(1-halonaphthalen-4-yl)nicotinamide, L(amide-X), and 4-halo-N-((pyridin-3-yl)methylene)naphthalen-1-amine, L(imine-X), has been studied. Inspection of the packing of these compounds clearly shows the presence of conformational changes in the arrangement of the ligands in each series. Although there are slight differences between the crystal packing of these compounds, it seems that π-involving intermolecular interactions including πnaphπnaph in the first series and πimineπpy/naph in the second series with the cooperation of Hgπpy can lock the ligand conformational variety to a single conformer.