From molecular to micro structure via nanostructure of a nickel(II) dithiolene complex

Abstract

1257-1262The nanocrystal structure of a hetero-polyatomic metal-ligand complex, [PPh4][NiII(L2−)(L1−·)], (1) (L = 1,2-dicarbomethoxyethylene dithiolate) has been arrived at from its molecular structure obtained by X-ray crystallography. The complex (1) exhibits dimorphism, existing in two crystal habits at the micro level, viz., rectangular prismatic and hexagonal. Rectangular or hexagonal repeating motifs manifest in the lattice packing of the two crystal structures of (1) in two different solvents which extend up to nano dimension and result in nano sized rectangular and hexagonal prismatic crystals. This provides major clues to understand the shapes of hetero-poly atomic nanocrystals at the molecular level