Synthesis and structural characterization of binuclear palladium(II) complexes of salicylaldimine dithiosemicarbazones

A series of binuclear palladium(II) salicylaldiminato dithiosemicarbazone complexes have been synthesized and characterized. The palladium complexes were obtained by the reaction of various ethylene- and phenylene-bridged dithiosemicarbazones with Pd(PPh₃)₂Cl₂. The free salicylaldimine ligands and their palladium complexes were characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopies, ESI-mass spectrometry, elemental analyses and for two representative complexes also by X-ray diffraction. In both metal complexes, the solid-state structures show the two palladium centers to be coordinated in a slightly distorted square-planar geometry, which gives rise in each case to five- and six-membered chelate rings. The salicylaldimine thiosemicarbazone ligands coordinate to palladium in a tridentate manner, through the phenolic oxygen, imine nitrogen and thiolate sulfur atoms.