3.1 Structural studies and description
Crystalline phases of compounds 1 and 2 were analyzed by PXRD (Fig S1). The superposition of the experimental diagrams with the theoretical ones, obtained from the single-crystal X-ray diffraction, shows a good correspondence, indicating so the purity of the grown crystals .
It should be noted that both compounds are rather similar and contain two hexaborate rings complexing a single Co(II) cation surrounded by oxygen atoms with a coordination number of six in a distorted octahedral environment. The charge balance is assured by the presence of two organic protonated cations,2-amino-3-methylpyridinium and 2-amino-4-methylpyridinium for compound 1 and 2 respectively (Fig. 1).
In both systems, the asymmetric unit is built up from a Co(II) ion, one hexaborate ligand partnered with an organic protonated cation (C6H9N2)+ and one water of crystallisation.The full octahedral molecular system [Co{κ3O-B6O7(OH)6}2]2−can be generated through the inversion center located on the cobalt atom. Considering the charge of the hexameric polyborates, the boron centers should be 3+ the cobalt cation should be 2+. This is confirmed by BVS calculation for both systems where the calculated values are on average2.1617v.u and 3.050v.u for compound 1 and 2.1605v.uto3.036v.u for compound 2 [21]. Complete composition considering the protonated organic parts and the hydration composition is then (C6N2H9)2[Co{κ3O-B6O7(OH)6}2].2H2O. In these molecules, the hexaborate(2-)anions,[B6O7(OH)6]2−, are composed of three six-membered rings in which three trigonal B1 centers (BO2(OH)group) and the three tetrahedral B2 centers(BO4group) are linked by six µ2-O and one µ3-Obridging oxygen atoms (Fig. 2). Using the classification of polyborates anions proposed by Hellen, Chris and Clark [22], the fundamental building blocks(FBB) shorthand notation for the hexameric [B6O7(OH)6]2−anion present in compounds1 and 2is 6:3Δ + 3T.
The main bond lengths and angles of the two systems are recorded in (Table S1). The Co-O bonds lengths are ranged between 2.0125(11) Å and 2.1776(11) Å in compound 1 and 2.041(3) Å and 2.147(3) Å in compound 2with a good agreement with previously obtained hexaborato-cobaltate complexes in (C4H12N2)[Co{B6O7(OH)6}2].6H2O [7], (C5H14N2)[Co{B6O7(OH)6}2].2H2O [23] and (C5H11N3)[Co{B6O7(OH)6}2].4H2O [24].
In the triangular boron groups, the B-O distances vary from 1.3510(2) Å to 1.373(2) Å [av. = 1.362 Å] in compound1 and from 1.352(7) Å to 1.383(6) Å [av. = 1.3635 Å] in compound 2. In the tetrahedral boron groups, the B-O bands vary from 1.440(2) Å to 1.5146(19) Å [av. = 1.4773 Å] and 1.435(6) Å to 1.5180(6) Å [av. = 1.468 Å] in compound1 and 2, respectively. These values are comparable with distances observed in several hexaborate compounds [25–29].
Furthermore, the structures of 1 and 2 are specifically stabilized by a set of potential H-bond interactions involving both anion-anion and cation-anion contacts leading so to generate three-dimensional porous architectures. In fact, the adjacent [Co{κ3O-B6O7(OH)6}2]2− complex anions are interconnected via extensive Ohexborate—H⋅⋅⋅Ohexaborate (O…O distance: 2.7051 (18)- 3.365 (3) Å for 1, 2.725 (5)- 3.371 (6) for 2) (Table S2) giving rise to a porous 3D net-like inorganic subnetwork with channels voids along c and a-axis for compounds 1 and 2, respectively, as exposed in Fig. 2.As well, each compound includes tow interstitial H2O molecules which are H-bonding to the hexaborate (2-) units through Ohexborate—H⋅⋅⋅OW and OW —H⋅⋅⋅Ohexborate. These potential hydrogen bond interactions are also evidenced by the molecular Hirshfeld surfaces (HS) analysis coupled with the 2D-fingerprint [30, 31] which indicate that the contributions ofH…O/ O…H interactions ( 58. % and 60.5% for 1and 2, respectively)are the most important in the building of a stabilized 3D-porous networks to easily hold the organic moieties. In addition ,the amine groups are located in the channel voids running down the crystallographic c and a-axis,in compound 1and 2 respectively, and interacted with the inorganic framework by a set of N—H…O and C—H…O hydrogen bonds. In this case, the HS analysis reveals a relatively moderate contribution of H…H intercontacts (30. %and 27.5% for 1and 2, respectively) with much more less ones for other intercontacts (B⋯H, O⋯O,B⋯O, C⋯O, C⋯H, C⋯C, C⋯N,O⋯N,N⋅⋅H, B⋯C, B⋯B, N⋯O, B⋯N and N⋯N).
With regard to the organic moities, π···πstacking interactions are detected between the centroid (Cg) of the pyridinium cations Cg1–Cg1i (distances of 4.170Å) for compound 1 and Cg2-Cg2i (distances of 3.3573 Å)for compound 2which is confirmed by the appearing of the red triangles on the Hirshfeld surface mapped with shape-index (Fig. 4). Moreover, supplementary interactions between the pyridine and the µ3-O bridge (O4) in the center of the hexameric polyborates are also observed (with distances of 4.0963 Å and 4.16549 Å for compound 1 and 2 respectively), giving so more stability of the crystalline network of both systems.
3.2 Optical Properties
The UV-Vis spectra and the gap energy determination curves are shown in Figs. 5 and 6. An intense bands are observed in the UV region of the spectra, at 235 and 311 nm, respectively for compound 1 and 2which can be referred to the π−π∗ and n−π∗ interactions [24, 37].On the other hand, the characteristic bands of the octahedral coordination sphere of Co(II) metal ion appeared in the visible region at 510 nm and 660 nm for compound 1 and 512 and 661 nm for compound 2, well assigned to 4T1g (F)->4T1g (P) and 4T1g (F) ->4A2g(F) transitions of Co(II) in octahedral coordination.
Using the Tauc equation and by extrapolation of the plot of (αh𝛎)2 versus (h𝛎) we found that the Eg value is 2.72 and 3.13 eV for compound 1 and 2, respectively, corresponding so to a semi-conductor band gap energy difference [24, 28].
3.3 Magnetic moment
Data were recorded following standard procedures by cooling from room temperature to 2K at zero fields (ZFC) to align the spins followed by a second cooling analysis (FC) under different fields. Magnetization as a function of the field was measured between − 90000 Oe and + 90000 Oe at different temperatures. The magnetization of the two compounds as a function of the applied field shows linear behaviors for 300K. When the temperature drops to 2K, we see a complete alignment of the spins within the cobalt atoms of the two hexaborate(2-) complexes with a maximum value of 2.2µB and 2.1 µB for compounds 1 and 2 respectively. The presence of a tray as well as the large distance between the monomeric cobalt centers of compounds 1 and 2 (< 8Å) indicates their paramagnetic characteristics. The magnetic susceptibility in the range 100K − 300K which follows a Curie-Weiss law (Fig. 7) gives the curie constancy and the Curie temperature when extrapolated (Table 2).
Table 2
Curie constancy and Curie temperature of 1 and 2.
Compound | 1 | 2 |
Curie Constancy C | 0.3314 | 0.3812 |
Curie Temperature θCW | 0.67 | 6.76 |
Molar magnetic susceptibility (χm) data for compounds 1 and 2, varied between 0.9552-0.01 cm3.mol-1and 0.9223 − 0.0088 cm3.mol-1, respectively. These values are typical of paramagnetic polyborate complexes with octahedral metallic ion [14, 36].
The isolated paramagnetic ion cobalt (II) (d7) high spin (S = 3/2) gives a spin only value of 3.88 µB. This value deviates from the experimental value (4.91 µB and 4.58 µB for compounds 1 and 2 respectively (Fig. 8) because of the presence of a spin-orbit coupling with this element. By taking this coupling into account, the theoretical value becomes 4.9µB. It is then in good agreement with the experimental value measured considering isolated cobalt (II) paramagnetic center [32, 33]. In other hand the X-ray diffraction results show that the minimum distances between two cobalt atoms (Co-Co) are 8.229 Å for compound 1 and 9.170 Å for compound 2 which explain the absence of interactions between the cobalt magnetic moments and consequently the paramagnetic aspect of our compounds.
To better understand the magnetic behavior of our compounds and confirm the results obtained, a comparative study was carried out with compounds containing transition metals in octahedral geometries, hexaborate anions or organic cations in common with our compounds studied. This study allows us to present the source of the paramagnetic aspect of our compounds by the absence of organic cations in compound C1 ([CoB12O14(OH)10]) and by the absence of hexaborate anion in compound C2 ([Co(2A4MP)2(Cl)2]). In addition, it was found that compound C3 ([Ni(en)3][B5O6(OH)4][CH3COO]) has a paramagnetic appearance with an octahedral geometry of nickel similar to that of cobalt in our case study. This full comparison can confirms the factors related to the absence of interaction between the cobalt spins in compounds 1 and 2 and hence the dominant paramagnetic feature.
Table 3
Main magnetic characteristics of 1, 2 and related compounds
Compound | 1 | 2 | CoB12O14(OH)10 C1 [12] | [Co(2A4MP)2(Cl)2] C2 [33] | [Ni(en)3][B5O6(OH)4][CH3COO] C3 [14] |
Metalgeometry | Octahedral | Octahedral | Octahedral | Tetrahedral | Octahedral |
magnetic moment | 4.91 µB | 4.58 µB | 3.95µB | 4.58µB | 3.16 µB |
Spins | High-spin(d7) | High-spin(d7) | High spin (d7) | High-spin (d7) | High-spin (d8) |
Magnetic aspect | Para-magnetic | Para-magnetic | Antiferro-magnetic | Paramagnetic | paramagnetic |