Reported herein are the synthesis, structural and magnetic characterisation of a dinuclear FeII triple helicate that displays an unprecedented reversible asymmetric high spin to low spin crossover characterised by a thermal hysteresis: indeed the high spin state can be recovered by white light irradiation at 10 K.

A neutral dinuclear rhenium(I) bipyridinetricarbonyl bromide complex has been investigated with a range of anions, giving a remarkable binding affinity for dihydrogenphosphate. These studies highlight that anion sensing can be achieved with structurally simple species provided that the compound adopts an unconventional conformation, through, for example, intramolecular hydrogen bonding in solution.

The syntheses of 2,2'-bipyridin-5-ylmethyl-5-(1,2-dithiolan-3-yl)pentanoate (L1) and N-(2,2'-bipyridin-5-ylmethyl)-5-(1,2-dithiolan-3-yl)pentanamide (L2) and their neutral fac carbonylrhenium(I) complexes [Re(L1)(CO)(3)Br] and [Re(L2)(CO)(3)Br] are reported. The electronic absorption and emission spectra of the complexes are similar to the spectrum of the reference compound [Re(bipy)(CO)(3)Br] and correlate well with the density functional theory calculations undertaken. The surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) spectra (excited at both 532 and 785 nm) of the ligands and complexes were examined and compared to the spectrum of ethyl 5-(1,2-dithiolan-3-yl)pentanoate (L3), revealing that there is very little contribution to the spectra of these species from the dithiolated alkyl chains. The spectra are dominated by the characteristic peaks of a metalated 2,2'-bipyridyl group, arising from the silver colloid/ion complexation, and the rhenium center. The rhenium complexes show weak SERS bands related to the CO stretches and a broad band at 510 cm(-1) assigned to Re-CO stretching. Concentration-dependent studies, measured by the relative intensity of several assigned peaks, indicate that, as the surface coverage increases, the bipyridine moiety lifts off the surface. In the case of L1 and L2, this gives rise to complexes with silver at low concentration, enhancing the signals observed, while for the tricarbonylbromorhenium complexes of these ligands, the presence of the disulfide tether allows an enhancement in the limits of detection of these surface-borne species of 20 times in the case of [ReL2(CO)(3)Br] over [Re(bipy)(CO)(3)Br].

A series of dinuclear (bipyridine)tricarbonylrhenium(I) and tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) complexes have been isolated and characterised, bridged by a flexible diamido ethylene glycol chain. A new stepwise synthetic pathway has been investigated to heterometallic complexes, with the rhenium-(I) complexes exhibiting an unusual configuration and inequivalence of the metal centres potentially arising from a surprising hydrogen-bonding interaction between an Re-CO group and an amide proton in low-polarity solvents. This interaction appears to be broken by competing hydrogenbonding species such as dihydrogen phosphate. This effect