Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Characteristics and Crystal Structure of a Tutton Salt Analog: Copper Doped Cadmium Creatininium Sulfate.

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance and crystallographic studies on copper-doped cadmium creatininium sulfate (CdCrnS) were undertaken to study the characteristics of a copper-hexahydrate complex in an organic analog of Tutton's salt. X-ray diffraction experiments determined the crystal structure of CdCrnS at both 100 K and 298 K. CdCrnS, like Tutton salt, crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21/n. The unit cell contains two cadmium hexahydrate complexes, four creatininium ions, four sulfates and four additional solvation waters. Both crystallography and EPR find the doped copper replaces the cadmium in the structure. Single crystal EPR measurements at room temperature determined the g and copper hyperfine (ACu) tensors (principal values: g; 2.437, 2.134, 2.080, ACu; -327, -84.8, 7.33 MHz). EPR spectra of the powder at room temperature gave g; 2.448, 2.125, 2.085 and ACu; -315, -75.0, 35.0 MHz, and at 110 K gave g; 2.462, 2.116, 2.077 and ACu; -340, -30.0, 35.0 MHz. The room temperature tensors are close to the "rigid lattice limit" values found in copper doped Tutton salts but having a higher gmin and weaker ACux coupling than average. A small but measureable temperature dependency of the tensors indicated the presence of a dynamic Jahn-Teller (JT) effect. In addition, the EPR linewidth changed dramatically with temperature which is like that found in all copper doped Tutton crystals. Utilizing the model of Silver-Getz for the g-value variation gave an estimate for the energy difference (δ12 = 640 cm-1) between the ground and next highest JT configuration. An empirical correlation appears to exist between δ12 and gmin and ACux for the copper hexahydrates studied in similar crystals. This suggests a relationship between the amount of unpaired spin in the copper d orbital x-lobe and the gap between wells of the adiabatic potential surface.