Effect of chelate ring expansion on Jahn-Teller distortion and Jahn-Teller dynamics in copper(II) complexes.

The expanded ligand N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-dipyridin-2-yl-pyridin-2,6-diamine (ddpd) coordinates to copper(II) ions in a meridional fashion giving the dicationic complex mer-[Cu(ddpd)(2)](BF(4))(2) (1). In the solid state at temperatures below 100 K the cations of 1 localize in Jahn-Teller elongated CuN(6) polyhedra with the longest Cu-N bond pointing in the molecular x or y directions while the z axis is constrained by the tridentate ddpd ligand. The elongated polyhedra are ordered in an antiferrodistortive way giving an idealized zincblende structure. At higher temperature dynamically averaged (fluxional) polyhedra in the molecular x/y directions are observed by multifrequency variable temper…