LAUSR

Abstract The synthesis, structures, and magnetic properties are reported of three new polynuclear FeIII complexes containing the anions of picolinic acid (picH) and triethanolamine (teaH3) as chelates. The complexes [Fe6O2(OH)2(O2CR)4(pic)4(teaH)2] (R = Me (1), Ph (2)) and [Fe5O2(O2CBut)4(pic)3(teaH)2] (3) were obtained from the reaction of [Fe3O(O2CR)6(H2O)3](NO3) (R = Me, Ph, But) with picH and teaH3 in a 1:2:1 ratio in MeCN. The core of 1 and 2 consists of an [Fe4(µ3-O)2]8+ ‘planar-butterfly’ unit to which is attached an Fe atom on either side by bridging O atoms. The core of 3 consists of an [Fe5(µ3-O)2]11+ unit comprising two near-perpendicular vertex-sharing [Fe3(µ3-O)]7+ triangular units. Variable-temperature (T) and -field (H) solid-state dc and ac magnetization (M) studies in the 5.0–300 K temperature range revealed that 1 and 2 have an S = 5 ground state spin whereas 3 has an S = 5/2 ground state. Jij exchange couplings were calculated by DFT and a magnetostructural correlation (MSC) for polynuclear FeIII/O complexes. This allowed rationalization of the observed ground states from the analysis of the spin frustration effects operative, and provided good input values for fits of the experimental χMT vs T data to obtain the Jij values.