An alkoxo-bridged binuclear manganese complex bis(mu-propionato-O : O ')-bis(mu-3-salicylidene-amino- propanolato-O '',O ''',N : O '') bismanganese(III)

The alkoxo-bridged binuclear complex of Mn-III, [Mn-2(salpa)(2)(C2H5-COO)(2 )] (H(2)salpa=3-salicylidene-amino-1-propanol), has been prepared and its c rystal structure has been determined by X-ray diffraction. The structure of the title complex consists of discrete binuclear manganese units in which the Mn-III atoms are bridged by two alkoxo ligands via oxygen atoms and sup ported by two carboxylato bridging ligands in the syn-syn fashion. The comp lex lies about a crystallographic inversion center. Each Mn ni atom is loca ted in an elongated octahedral environment with one imino N, one phenolic O and two alkoxo O atoms coordinated in the equatorial plane and two O atoms from carboxylato groups at the apical positions. The remarkably longer coo rdination bond distances in the axial direction are attributed to Jahn Tell er distortion at the d(4) manganese center. The distance between the mangan ese atoms is 2.8662(9) A. The asymmetrical and symmetric stretching vibrati ons for carboxylato groups found at 1550 and 1440 cm(-1), respectively, wit h a separation of less than 200 cm(-1) confirmed the bidentate mode of the carboxylato groups.