Antiferromagnetic exchange in meta-phenylene bridged bis(tris-o-iminosemiquinonato)metal complexes

By reaction of the ligand N,N-t bis(3,5-di-tert-butyl-2-hydroxyphenyl)-1,3-phenylenediamine (1), with Fe, Co or Mn salts, three complexes were synthesized where the bis-bidentate ligand is in the bis-semiquinonato oxidation state. Although the in-phenylene linker is known to afford ferromagnetic coupling in diradicals, the antiferromagnetic interaction of intramolecular origin we observed is not unexpected, given the large torsion angles between the semiquinonato and the m-phenylene planes.