Anion Effects on Crystal Structures of CdII Complexes Containing 2,2'-Bipyridine: Photoluminescence and Catalytic Reactivity

Anion effects on structures of $Cd^{II}$ complexes containing 2,2'-bipyridine (2,2'-bpy) ligands have been studied, and compared with $Zn^{II}$-(2,2'-bpy) complexes. For each anion, different structures have been obtained in both $Zn^{II}$-(2,2'-bpy) and $Cd^{II}$-(2,2'-bpy). Polymeric structures of $Cd^{II}$-2,2'-bpy complexes can be produced by hydrogen bonding interactions as shown in $Zn^{II}$-2,2'-bpy complexes. In addition, the bigger size of a $Cd^{II}$ ion gives higher coordination numbers forming variety of structures, and it makes that chlorides can act as bridging ligands to form a one-dimensional structure. The compound $\mathbf{5}$ catalyzed efficiently the transesterification of a variety of esters with methanol, while the rest of the compounds have displayed very slow conversions. In addition, the emission bands of complexes $\mathbf{1}$, $\mathbf{2}$, $\mathbf{4}$, and $\mathbf{6}$ are blue-shifted compared to the corresponding ligand 2,2'-bpy, whereas $\mathbf{3}$ and $\mathbf{5}$ showed the similar emission observed for the ligand.