Whereas binuclear salicylaldimine complexes and their mononuclear parents are waxlike solids with long chain N-substituents, they are liquid crystalline (mesogenic) when such substituent chains are placed on both the ligand rings and the N-atoms. The strcture of the non-mesogenic binuclears is determined via X-ray crystallography, and via the strength of magnetic coupling for the mesogenic ones. In the non-mesogenic binuclears the central metal environments have a marked distortion towards tetrahedral (> 36 deg; scale 0 deg for planar, 90 deg for tetrahedral), while in the mesogenic ones, the stronger magnetic coupling indicates that this is closer to planar (25 deg).
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