Salen Type Sandwich Triple-Decker Tri- and Di-nuclear Lanthanide Complexes

Four N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-1,2-(phenylene-ediamine) (H2L) trinuclear lanthanide complexes, namely, [Ln3L3(CH3OH)2(NO3)3]·(CH2Cl2)·(CH3OH)·(H2O)2 [Ln = Tb (1), Ho (2), Er (3) and Lu (4)], have been isolated by the reactions of H2L and Ln(NO3)3·6H2O. And one N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-1,2-(phenylene-ediamine) dinuclear neodymium complex [Nd2L3(CH3OH)] (5) has been harvested from the reaction of H2L with Nd(OAc)3·4H2O. X-ray crystallographic analysis reveals that complexes 1−4 are of triple-decker trinuclear sandwich structure, while complex 5 is of a triple-decker dinuclear sandwich structure, expanding upon the recent reports of the multinuclear pure lanthanide complexes.