Trinuclear manganese(III) complexes of new unsymmetrical pentadentate ligands, 6‐hydroxy‐2‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl)‐5‐(salicylideneamino)benzoxazole (H3L1) and 5‐(5,6‐benzosalicylideneamino)‐6‐hydroxy‐2‐(2‐hydroxynaphthyl)benzoxazole (H3L2), [Mn3(L1)3(CH3OH)3] (1) and [Mn3(L2)3(dmf)(CH3OH)(H2O)] (2) (dmf = N,N‐dimethylformamide), have been prepared. The structures of the ligands H3L1, H3L2 and complex 1 were determined by X‐ray crystallography, which revealed that the ligands have two distant chelating sites. The molecular structure of 1 is regarded as a tripodal pyramid with a cavity of about 3 Å diameter. Each MnIII ion is coordinated by ONO atoms from a tridentate Schiff base site and ON atoms from a benzoxazole site of two respective H3L1 ligands. The intramolecular Mn···Mn distances for 1 are in the range 8.0683–8.1791 Å, and the nearest intermolecular Mn···Mn distance, 5.7824(15) Å, is shorter than theintramolecular values. Magnetic measurements of 1 indicate that weak antiferromagnetic interactions (J = –0.2 cm–1, g = 2.0) are dominant in the trinuclear manganese(III) core. Cyclic voltammogram of 1 in dmf showed obscure redox couples assigned to two single‐electron transfer processes.(© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007)

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