Dipole fluctuation and structural phase transition in hydrogen-bonding molecular assemblies of mononuclear CuII complexes with polar fluorobenzoate ligands

A series of mononuclear CuII complexes, [CuII(4-FBA)2(py)2(H2O)] (1), [CuII(3-FBA)2(py)2(H2O)] (2), and [CuII(3,4-F2BA)2(py)2(H2O)] (3), where 4-FBA = 4-fluorobenzoate, 3-FBA = 3-fluorobenzoate, 3,4-F2BA = 3,4-difluorobenzoate, and py = pyridine, respectively, was synthesized and the complexes crystallographically identified. All the CuII complex crystals share a one-dimensional O–H⋯O hydrogen-bonding chain substructure, although the mutual alignment of fluorinated benzoate (FxBA) ligands exhibits subtle differences among the various compounds, i.e., FxBA ligands align in an antiparallel fashion in crystals 1 and 3, while 3-FBA ligands in crystal 2 are interdigitated with a tilt along the a axis. Reversible phase transitions were found upon heating at 170.7, 171.3, and 267.5 K for crystals 1, 2, and 3, respectively; all crystals showed approximately 3% expansion and shrinkage of the intermolecular O–H⋯O hydrogen bond distances associated with the thermally activated orientational fluctuations of the FxBA ligands in crystals 1 and 3. The increase in dielectric constant with increasing temperature, at 240 K, activated molecular fluctuation in the 3,4-F2BA ligands in crystal 3. Heat capacity measurements indicated that both the expansion and shrinkage of hydrogen bonds, and the molecular fluctuation in 3,4-F2BA ligands, contributed to phase transition, and the latter caused dipole fluctuation, resulting in a dielectric anomaly in crystal 3.