Self-assembly of the ligands
N,
N'-1,5-naphthalenebis(oxamate) (1,5-na
ba) and
N,
N'-2,6'-anthracenebis(oxamate) (2,6-an
ba) by Cu
II ions affords the two new dicopper(II) metallacyclophanes
2aand
3b, whereby the metal centers are connected by double naphthalene- and anthracenediamidate bridgeswith
,
' and
,
' substitution patterns, respectively. Despite the largely different intermetallic distances of8.3 Å (
2a) and 12.3 Å (
3b), magnetic susceptibility measurements show a moderately strong antiferromagnetic coupling with rather similar
J values in the range from -20.5 to -20.7 (
2a) and from -21.2 to-23.0 (
3b) cm
-1 (
H = -
J S1 ·
S2; S
1 = S
2 =
1/
2). Density functional theory calculations on the two seriesof dicopper(II) metallacyclophanes
1a-
10a and
1b-
10b with linear
,
'- and
,
'-disubstituted oligoacenediamidate bridges, respectively, confirm the better efficiency of the latter substitution pattern on long-rangemagnetic coupling. More importantly, they predict a unprecedented wirelike magnetic behavior for the longestmembers of the series with octacene through decacene spacers (
J values up to +3.0 cm
-1 for intermetallicdistances reaching 28.8 Å).