An Original Supramolecular Helicate from a Bipyridine–Bipyrazine Ligand Strand and Ni II by Self‐Assembly

A new discrete supramolecular pseudo-helicate has been obtained from a saturated heterotopic methylbipyrazyl–methylbipyridyl ligand strand and NiCl2. The X-ray structure of the dinuclear complex shows the 2-oxapropylene bridge oxygen atoms are engaged in coordination to the octahedral metal centre and a selective ligand inter-strand orientation is promoted in the complex. The crystal packing shows a perfect regular linear arrangement of the asymmetric units giving a packing of interacting molecules having well-defined rectangular and polygonal open channels. Although a paramagnetic behaviour is observed above 10 K, below this temperature a significant deviation of this behaviour suggests the presence of an NiII–NiII magnetic coupling. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2006)