Abstract
One mononuclear cobalt(II) compound of the type [Co(bnzd) 2 (NCS) 2 (OH 2 ) 2 ] (1) (bnzd = benzidine) has been isolated through a single-pot reaction of the molecular building components in MeOH-H 2 O solvent mixture at room temperature and characterized by physico-chemical and spectroscopic methods. The crystal structure of complex 1 has an octahedral geometry with trans, trans, trans orientations in the order (N a ,N a ), (N t ,N t ), (O w ,O w ) [N a = N(amine), N t = N(thiocyanate) and O w = O(water)]. In crystalline state, individual units of 1 are associated by weak cooperative O-H.N, O-H.S and N-H.S hydrogen bonds resulting in a 3D network structure. The compound is redox active and shows luminescence in MeOH solution. Thermal decomposition pattern of 1 reveals the presence of two coordinated water molecules. Variable-temperature magnetic susceptibility measurement shows significant orbital contribution and numerical matrix diagonalization method gives the best fit parameters: α = Ak = 1.43; λ = -130 cm - 1 ; Δ = - 864 cm - 1 ; TIP = 0.000975; R = 1.19 × 10 - 4 . [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2013 Indian Academy of Sciences.