The studies of an underex
plored synthetic reagent, VO
2(acac) (Hacac = acetylacetone) and semirational strategiesfor the formation of a com
plete series of sim
ple vanadium(V) alkoxide clusters in alcohol-containing solvents.The neutral mono-, di-, tri-, and tetranuclear oxovanadium(V) com
plexes [V
2O
2(
-OCH
3)
2(acac)
2(OCH
3)
2] (
1),[V
4O
4(
-O)
2(
-OCH
3)
2(
3-OCH
3)
2(acac)
2(OCH
3)
2]·2CH
3CN (
2), [V
4O
4(
-O)
2(
-OCH
3)
2(
3-OCH
3)
2(acac)
2(OCH
3)
2] (
3), [V
3O
3{
,
-(OCH
2)
3CCH
3}
2(acac)
2(OR)] (R = CH
3 (
4), C
2H
5 (
5)), and
cis-[VO(OCH(CH
3)
2)(acac)
2](
6) with alkoxide and acac
- ligands were obtained by reaction of VO
2(acac) with a monoalcohol and/or a tridentatealcohol. The structures of com
plexes
1-
3,
5, and
6 were determined by X-ray diffraction methods. Com
plex
1crystallized in the monoclinic system,
P2
1/
n, with
a = 7.8668(5) Å,
b = 15.1037(9) Å,
c = 8.5879(5) Å,
=106.150(1)
,
V = 980.1(1) Å
3,
Z = 2, and
R (w
R2) = 0.040 (0.121). Com
plex
2 crystallized in the monoclinicsystem,
P2
1/
n, with
a = 8.531(2) Å,
b = 14.703(3) Å,
c = 12.574(2) Å,
= 95.95(2)
,
V = 1568.7(5) Å
3,
Z =2, and
R (w
R2) = 0.052 (0.127). Com
plex
3 crystallized in the triclinic system,
P, with
a = 8.5100(8) Å,
b =8.9714(8) Å,
c = 10.3708(10) Å,
pha.gif" BORDER=0> = 110.761(1)
,
= 103.104(1)
,
= 100.155(1)
,
V = 691.85(11) Å
3,
Z =1, and
R (w
R2) = 0.040 (0.105). Com
plex
5 crystallized in the monoclinic system,
P2
1/
n, with
a = 14.019(2)Å,
b = 11.171(2) Å,
c = 19.447(3) Å,
= 109.18(1)
,
V = 2876.5(8) Å
3,
Z = 4, and
R (w
R2) = 0.062 (0.157).Com
plex
6 crystallized in the monoclinic system,
P2
1/
n, with
a = 15.0023(8) Å,
b = 8.1368(1) Å,
c = 26.5598(2) Å,
= 95.744(1)
,
V = 3225.89(8) Å
3,
Z = 8, and
R (w
R2) = 0.060 (0.154). Com
plex
1 is a discrete,centrosymmetric dimer in which two vanadium atoms are bridged by two methoxide ligands. Com
pound
2 containsa V
4O
4 eight-membered ring with both
-oxo and
-alkoxo bridging ligands; the ring is ca
pped above and belowby two tri
ply bridging methoxo ligands. Com
pound
3 has the same structure as
2. The three vanadium atomsin com
plex
5 are linked by four bridging oxygen atoms from two tridentate thme
3- ligands to form a V
3O
4 chainin which V-O bonds alternate in length. The V-O(iso
pro
poxo) bond in
6 is cis to V=O, and the V-O(acac)bond trans to the oxo grou
p is relatively long. The V
2O
2 rings of com
plex
1 and the mononuclear 1:2 com
plexcan be considered to be the basic building block of the trinuclear com
plexes
4 and
5 and the tetranuclear com
plex
2, acting to extend the vanadium-oxide framework.
51V and
1H NMR s
pectrosco
pic studies of the solution stateof com
plexes
1-
6 revealed dramatic differences in structural and hydrolytic stability of these com
plexes.Com
pounds
1 and
3 only remained intact at low tem
perature in CDCl
3 solution, whereas the mononuclear com
pound
6 could remain at ambient tem
perature for ~10 h. Com
pound
4 only maintained its solid-state structure at lowtem
perature in CDCl
3 solution, whereas com
pound
5 was significantly more stable. The structural integrity ofoligomeric vanadium-oxygen frameworks increased significantly when the coordinating alkoxide grou
p showedmore resistance to exchange reactions than the methoxide grou
p. The solid state and solution
pro
perties of thisnew grou
p of com
plexes not only testify to the versatility of VO
2(acac) as a vanadium(V)
precursor but also raisequestions relating to solution structure and
pro
perties of related vanadium com
plexes with insulin-mimetic
pro
pertiesand catalytic
pro
perties.