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

The coordination behavior of pyridylmethylthioether type of organic moieties having N2S2 donor set [L 1 = 1,2-bis(2-pyridylmethylthio)ethane, L 2 = 1,3-bis(2-pyridylmethyl-thio)propane and L 3 = 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 C S bond cleavage of the organic moieties leading to the formation of copper(II) picolinate derivatives, whereas, under similar experimental conditions, no C S 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.