Spectroscopy and structures of copper complexes with ethylenediamine and methyl-substituted derivatives

Copper complexes of ethylenediamine (en), W-methylethylenediamine (meen), N,N-dimethylethylenediamine (dmen), N,N,N′-trimethylethylenediamine (tren), and N,N,N,N′N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (tmen) are synthesized in laser-vaporization supersonic molecular beams and studied by pulsed-field ionization zero electron kinetic energy (ZEKE) and photoionization efficiency spectroscopies and second-order Moller-Plesset perturbation theory. Precise ionization energies and vibrational frequencies of Cu-en, -meen, and -dmen are measured from the ZEKE spectra, and ionization thresholds of Cu-tren and -tmen are estimated from the photoionization efficiency spectra. The measured vibrational modes span a frequency range of 35-1646 cm ^-1 and include metal-ligand stretch and bend, hydrogen-bond stretch, and ligand-based torsion. A number of low-energy structures with Cu binding to one or two nitrogen atoms are predicted for each complex by the ab initio calculations. The combination of the spectroscopic measurements and ab initio calculations has identified a hydrogen-bond-stabilized monodentate structure for the Cu-en complex and bidentate cyclic structures for the methyl-substituted derivatives. The change of the Cu binding from the monodentate to the bidentate mode arises from the competition between copper coordination and hydrogen bonding.