Rhenium(IV) Cyanate Complexes: Synthesis, Crystal Structures and Magnetic Properties of NBu4[ReBr4(OCN)(DMF)] and (NBu4)2[ReBr(OCN)2(NCO)3]

Two new rhenium(IV) mononuclear compounds of formula NBu4[ReBr4(OCN)(DMF)] (1) and (NBu4)2[ReBr(OCN)2(NCO)3] (2) (NBu4 = tetrabutylammonium cation, OCN = O-bonded cyanate anion, NCO = N-bonded cyanate anion and DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide) have been synthesized and their crystal structures determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. 1 crystallizes in the monoclinic system with the space group P2(1)/n, whereas 2 crystallizes in the triclinic one with P (1) over bar as space group. In both complexes the rhenium atom is six-coordinated, in I by four Br atoms in the equatorial plane, and two trans-oxygen atoms, one of a DMF molecule and another one from a cyanato group, while in 2 by one bromide anion and five cyanate ligands, two of which are O-bonded and three N-bonded, forming a somewhat distorted octahedral surrounding. Magnetic susceptibility measurements on polycrystalline samples of 1 and 2 in the temperature range 1.9-300 K are interpreted in terms of magnetically isolated spin quartets with large values of the zero-field splitting (vertical bar 2D vertical bar is ca. 41.6 and 39.2 cm(-1) for 1 and 2, respectively).