The used chemicals were all commercially obtained and no further purification was done (see Suppl. Mater., Section S1). The used water was deionized.
FT-IR measurements were carried out on a Bruker TENSOR 37 IR spectrometer (Bruker, Billerica, MA, USA) in ATR mode (Platinum ATR-QL, Diamond) in the range 4000-500 cm
–1. NMR spectra were collected with a Bruker Avance III – 300 (Bruker, Billerica, MA, USA) (
1H: 300 MHz);
13C{
1H}: 75 MHz). Elemental analyses were measured on a PerkinElmer 2400 series II elemental analyzer (PerkinElmer, Waltham, MA, USA) (accuracy of 0.5%). Thermogravimetric analyses were carried out using a Netzsch TG209 F3 Tarsus (Netzsch, Selb, Germany) under nitrogen atmosphere with a ramp of 5 K min
–1 up to 1000°C. X-ray powder diffraction measurements were performed on a Rigaku MiniFlex600 (Rigaku, Tokyo, Japan) (600 W, 40 kV, 15 mA) at room temperature with Cu-Kα radiation (λ = 1.54184 Å). The low-background silicon holder in the PXRD device is the cause of the rising baseline below 5° 2Theta. The highest reflex was normalized to 1. The simulated powder patterns were derived from the single crystal data using the MERCURY 2020.3.0 software [
55].
Under a polarized-light Leica M80 microscope (Leica, Wetzlar, Germany) suitable single crystals were carefully selected and covered with oil on a cryo-loop. The single crystal diffraction measurement for compounds
1 and
3 were carried out on a Rigaku XtaLAB Synergy S diffractometer (Rigaku, Tokyo, Japan) with a hybrid pixel array detector and a micro-focus sealed X-ray tube, PhotonJet copper X-ray source (λ = 1.54184 Å). For cell refinement, data reduction and absorption correction CRYSALISPRO was used [
56]. For compound
2 the measurement was performed on a Bruker Kappa APEX2 CCD X-ray diffractometer (Bruker, Billerica, MA, USA) with a microfocus sealed tube molybdenum X-ray source (λ = 0.71073 Å) and a multi-layer mirror monochromator. Cell refinement was performed with APEX2, data reduction with SAINT and adsorption correction with SADABS [
57,
58,
59]. The crystal structures for compounds
1-3 were solved using OLEX2 with SHELXT and the refinement was done with SHELXL [
60,
61,
62,
63]. The graphics were drawn with the DIAMOND 4.0 software [
64].
2.1. Synthesis
2.1.1 Synthesis of 1,3,5-tris(1
H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)methyl)benzene (ttmb)
The linker ttmb was synthesized with a modified synthesis procedure of Shang
et al. [
65] as shown in Equation (1). 0.85 g (12.3 mmol) of 1,2,4-triazole and 1.32 g(23.5 mmol) of potassium hydroxide were stirred in 30 mL of acetonitrile for 30 min at room temperature. Afterwards, a solution of 1.0 g (2.8 mmol) of 1,3,5-tris(bromo methyl) benzene in 20 mL of acetonitrile was added. The resulting solution was stirred for an additional 30 min at room temperature. After filtration the solvent was removed in vacuo. Next, the resulting oil was dissolved in 20 mL of deionized water and extracted with chloroform (5 x 50 mL). Once the organic phase was dried with MgSO
4, the solvent was again removed using rotatory evaporation. The product crystallized over night and was then dried in vacuum at 60 °C. Yield: 0.45 g (46%). C
15H
15N
9: calc. C 56.1, H 4.7, N 39.2; exp. C 55.5, H 4.6, N 38.5 %. IR: ṽ [cm
–1]: 3114, 3096, 3034, 2994, 2955, 3034, 2993, 2956, 2849, 1798, 1757, 1711, 1609, 1503, 1466, 1445, 1430, 1373, 1338, 1298, 1270, 1207, 1170, 1137, 1096, 1018, 987, 960, 917, 895, 880, 858, 800, 742, 680, 648, 601, 570.
1H-NMR (300 MHz, DMSO-d
6): δ [ppm]: 8.63 (s, 3H), 7.97 (s, 3H), 7.12 (s, 3H), 5.39 (s, 6H).
13C{
1H}-NMR (75 MHz, DMSO-d
6: δ [ppm]: 151.81, 144.31, 137.26, 51.62.
2.1.2. Synthesis of [Fe(H2O)2(ttmb)2](ClO4)2·4H2O (1)
Please note, that perchlorates are potentially explosive and should be handled with care! TGA shows an explosion at around 200 °C after the sample was dried at 60 °C in vacuo beforehand. The amount of 49 mg (0.19 mmol) of Fe(ClO4)2·xH2O and 84 mg (0.26 mmol) of ttmb were dissolved in 3 mL of H2O and stored in an pre-heated oven at 60 °C for 20 h. After cooling down to room temperature over a period of 4 h, yellow crystals were obtained. The crystals were washed with water (3 x 3 mL) and stored in H2O. Yield: 73 mg (38%). C30H42Cl2FeN18O14: calc. C 40.2, H 3.4, N 28.0; exp. C 39.5, H 3.6, N 27.8 %. IR: ṽ [cm–1]: 3509, 3455, 3357, 3269, 3126, 3036, 2357, 1767, 1679, 1632, 1612, 1517, 1466, 1438, 1373, 1359, 1340, 1302, 1283, 1218, 1179, 1163, 1134, 1078, 1026, 989, 977, 962, 915, 886, 853, 778, 765, 747, 693, 677, 654, 621, 577.
2.1.3. Synthesis of [Fe(H2O)2(ttmb)2](BF4)2·4H2O (2)
For the synthesis of 2 two solutions were prepared. The first solution contained 122.1 mg (0.36 mmol) of Fe(BF4)2ˑ6H2O and 62.9 mg (0.36 mmol) of ascorbic acid in 1.5 mL of H2O. The second solution was composed of 57.9 mg (0.18 mmol) of ttmb dissolved in 1.5 mL of EtOH. Both solutions were heated up to 80 °C and then combined. The mixture was stored in the preheated oven at 60 °C for 24 h and cooled down for 4 h. The resulting colorless crystals were washed with a 1:1 (v:v) mixture of H2O:EtOH (3 x 3 mL) and later stored in that mixture as well. Yield: 68.5 mg (56 %). C30H42B2F8FeN18O14: calc. C 36.8, H 4.3, N 25.8; exp. C: 36.9, H 4.2, N 25.4 %. IR: ṽ [cm–1]: 3537, 3460, 3264, 3129, 3033, 2360, 1766, 1634, 1612, 1518, 1469, 1439, 1374, 1360, 1341, 1284, 1218, 1180, 1163, 1144, 1133, 1047, 1023, 990, 977, 913, 884, 852, 795, 778, 765, 747, 693, 677, 654, 577.
2.1.4. Synthesis of [Fe(ttmb)2(NCS)2] (3)
A modified procedure of Garcia
et al. [
66] was used. Three solutions were prepared. Solution 1 contained 19.6 mg (0.05 mmol) of (NH
4)
2Fe(SO
4)
2·6H
2O and 32 mg (0.18 mmol) of ascorbic acid in 1 mL of H
2O. The second solution embodied 7 mg (0.09 mmol) of NH
4SCN in 1 mL H
2O. Solution 3 was composed of 29 mg (0.09 mmol) of ttmb in 1 mL of deionized water. After heating each solution near its boiling point, solution 2 was added to solution 1. Solution 3 was then added dropwise to this combined solution. After 48 h at 60 °C colorless crystals were obtained. The crystals were washed with water (3 x 3 mL) and stored in H
2O. Yield: 26 mg (65%). C
32H
30FeN
20S
2: calc.: C = 47.2, H = 3.7, N = 34.4; exp.: C = 46.5, H = 3.8, N = 33.9. IR: ṽ [cm
–1]: 3580, 3436, 3140, 3126, 3110, 2961, 2845, 2338, 2162, 2046, 1779, 1757, 1611, 1522, 1502, 1466, 1430, 1359, 1340, 1311, 1298, 1275, 1202, 1178, 1159, 1131, 1019, 988, 974, 956, 923, 884, 847, 789, 759, 747, 682, 673, 652, 633, 583, 569.