Mononuclear-dinuclear equilibrium of grafted copper complexes confined in the nanochannels of MCM-41 silica

Following the structural concept of copper-containing proteins in which dinuclear copper centers are connected by hydroxide bridging ligands, a bidentate copper(II) complex has been incorporated into nano-confined MCM-41 silica by a multistep sequential grafting technique. Characterization by a combination of EPR spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV/Vis spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, and solid-state ¹³C and ²⁹Si cross-polarization magic-angle spinning (CP-MAS) NMR suggests that dinuclear Cu complexes are bridged by hydroxide and other counterions (chloride or perchlorate ions), similar to the situation for EPR-undetectable [Cu ^II⋯Cu ^II] dimer analogues in biological systems. More importantly, a dynamic mononuclear-dinuclear equilibrium between different coordination modes of copper is observed, which strongly depends on the nature of the counterions (Cl ^- or ClO ₄ ^-) in the copper precursor and the pore size of the silica matrix (the so-called confinement effect). A proton-transfer mechanism within the hydrogen-bonding network is suggested to explain the dynamic nature of the dinuclear copper complex supported on the MCM-41 silica.