Trigonal dodecahedral sodium coordination in a trinuclear copper(II)-sodium complex incorporating a salen-type compartmental Schiff base

A new trinuclear heterometallic complex, [(CuL)Na(CuL)]·ClO4 (1), has been prepared using a Schiff base, H2L (where H2L=N,N′-(1,2-phenylene)-bis(3-methoxysalicylideneimine) and characterized by elemental analysis, Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy, UV/Vis, magnetic, electrochemical, and single crystal X-ray diffraction methods. The structure analysis reveals that two metallo-ligand [(CuL)] units are connected to each other by a sodium ion resulting in the cationic unit [(CuL)Na(CuL)]+. Both the copper(II) ions display an almost square planar geometry while the sodium ion adopts a trigonal-dodecahedral coordination geometry. The spectroscopic and other physicochemical studies are in good agreement with the crystal structure of the complex.