Magnetic properties of some exchange coupled [Ni(mnt)₂]− dimers

Abstract

The metal dithiolenes exhibit interesting solid state properties owing to the presence of columnar crystallographic packing. Particularly, thebis(maleonitriledithiolato)-nickel(III) systems with a variety of organic and inorganic counter ions seem to possess low-dimensional magnetic interactions and charge-transfer properties. The metal chelates show strong alternation in their packing and result in reduced magnetic moments as a consequence of antiferromagnetic exchange coupling between the pairs. We have studied a few interesting dimers through x-ray structure and magnetic susceptibility measurements and the results are used to arrive at a correlation between the observed magnetic behaviour and the structure of the dimeric units.