The first coordination compounds of 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylate anion (butca<
SUP>4
-) of the formula [M
2(butca)(H
2O)
5]
n·2
nH
2O [M = Mn(II) (
1), Co(II) (
2), and Ni(II) (
3)] were prepared and their X-ray crystal structures andmagnetic properties investigated. The three complexes have a very similar two-dimensional structure which consistsof (4,4) networks,
1 and
2 being isostructural. The tetracarboxylate ligand acts as a 4-fold connector leading totwo-dimensional (4,4) networks of metal atoms, this topology being possible because of its planar conformation.The nodes of these networks are formed by dinuclear motifs which exhibit the unu
sual (
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
-aqua)bis(
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
-carboxylate)bridging unit which is analogous to that observed in some molecules of biological interest. The variable-temperaturemagnetic
susceptibility mea
surements of
1-
3 show that
1 and
2 are antiferromagnetically coupled systems whereas
3 exhibits a ferromagnetic behavior. The analysis of the magnetic data of
1-
3 through a simple dinuclear modelallowed the determination of the values of the magnetic coupling (
J) -3.6 (
1), -1.2 (
2), and +1.47 cm
-1 (
3) withthe Hamiltonian being defined as
H = -
JSA·
SB. The countercomplementarity between the two bridges (aqua andsyn-syn carboxylate) accounts for the trend exhibited by the values of the magnetic coupling in this family.