Synthesis, Crystal Structures, Electronic Spectra, and Magnetic Properties of Thiolato-Bridged Trinuclear Cobalt(II) Complexes with N, N, S-Tridentate Thiolate Ligands

New trinuclear Co II complexes, [{Co(apaet) 2 } 2 Co]X 2 (apaet – = 2-[(3-aminopropyl)amino]ethanethiolato; X = SCN ( 1 ), ClO 4 ( 2 ), NO 3 ( 3 ), Cl ( 4 ), Br ( 5 ), I ( 6 )) and [{Co(apampt) 2 } 2 Co]X 2 (apampt – = 1-[(3-aminopropyl)amino]-2-methylpropane-2-thiolato; X = NO 3 ( 7 ), ClO 4 ( 8 ), Cl ( 9 ), Br ( 10 ), I ( 11 )), and mononuclear Co III complexes, [Co(apaet) 2 ]X (X = ClO 4 ( 12 ), NO 3 ( 13 )), were synthesized. Single-crystal X-ray crystallography of 1 and 7 confirmed that the trinuclear complexes have a linear arrangement of octahedral Co II S 2 N 4 -tetrahedral Co II S 4 -octahedral Co II S 2 N 4 chromophores where two thiolate ligands are coordinated to each terminal Co atom in a mer coordination mode and the two thiolato S atoms are further bound to the central Co atom, which is consistent with the electronic spectra and antiferromagnetic properties