Recent advances in coordination chemistry of metal complexes based on nitrogen heteroaromatic alcohols. Synthesis, structures and potential applications

Abstract This review is focused on the use of nitrogen-containing heteroaromatic alcohols as ligands with increasing significance in diverse areas of chemistry. The application of such ligands ranges from structural chemistry, catalysis, and biomimetic modelling to molecular magnetism of polynuclear transition metal clusters as single-molecule magnets (SMMs). The efficiency of these ligands for the assembly of polynuclear complexes is due to their simultaneous N,O-chelating and O-bridging capabilities. For these reasons, to investigate the coordination chemistry of N-donor heteroaromatic alcohols presented in our earlier review, in this study, we paid special attention to (i) general approaches to formulate new SMMs based on 3d and 3d–4f central ions of polynuclear species and their structural and magnetic properties and (ii) synthesis of functional mimetics of metaloenzymes, such as catalase, and complexes with cytotoxic and antimicrobial properties. We also present an interesting group of coordination complexes with new multipodal ligands obtained in situ using 1-hydroxymethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazole as a proligand.