Crystals of the CuII complex with nitronyl nitroxide and imino nitroxide exhibiting mechanical activity

As part of continuing studies of multispin compounds capable of exhibiting chemomechanical activity, a series of heterospin solids of the composition [Cu(hfac)2LxL′2−x], [Cu(hfac)2L′], [Cu2(Piv)4L′2]·0.5C6H14, and [Cu2(hfac)2(Piv)2L′2], where hfac is the hexafluoroacetylacetonate anion, L is 4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-2-(1-methyl-1H-imidazol-5-yl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazole-3-oxide-1-oxyl, L′ is the imino nitroxide analog of L, viz., 4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-2-(1-methyl-1H-imidazol-5-yl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazole-1-oxyl, and Piv is the 2,2-dimethylpropionate anion, were synthesized and characterized. The packing of the synthesized crystals of the solid solutions [Cu(hfac)2LxL′2-x], where L predominates, is similar to that for [Cu(hfac)2L2], and these crystals are able to undergo chemomechanical motion. On the contrary, the crystals of [Cu(hfac)2LxL′2−x], where L′ predominates, have structural parameters similar to those of [Cu(hfac)2L′2] and do not exhibit thermally activated or photoactivated chemomechanical activity.