Coordination behavior of pyridylmethylthioether system with cupric chloride and cupric bromide: CS bond cleavage and crystal structures

The coordination behavior of pyridylmethylthioether type of organic moieties having N2S2 donor set [L1 = 1,2-bis(2-pyridylmethylthio)ethane, L2 = 1,3-bis(2-pyridylmethyl-thio)propane and L3 = 1,4-bis(2-pyridylmethylthio)butane] with copper(II) chloride and copper(II) bromide have been studied in different chemical environments. Copper(II) chloride assisted CS bond cleavage of the organic moieties leading to the formation of copper(II) picolinate derivatives, whereas, under similar experimental conditions, no CS bond cleavage was observed in the reaction with copper(II) bromide. The resulted copper(II) complexes isolated from the different mediums have been characterized by spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic tools.