Electronic Structure of a Mixed-Metal Fluoride-Centered Triangle Complex: A Potential Qubit Component

A novel fluoride-centered triangular-bridged carboxylate complex, [Ni2Cr(?3-F)(O2CtBu)6(HO2CtBu)3] (1), is reported. Simple postsynthetic substitution of the terminal pivalic acids in 1 with pyridine and 4-methylpyridine led to the isolation of [Ni2Cr(?3-F)(O2CtBu)6(C5H5N)3] (2) and [Ni2Cr(?3-F)(O2CtBu)6((4-CH3)C5H4N)3] (3). Structur- al and magnetic characterizations carried out on the series reveal a dominating antiferromagnetic interaction between the nickel and chromium centers leading to an S = 1/2 ground state with a very unusual value of geff = 2.48.