Sulphoxide ligands have two potential donor sites.
The lighter or more highly charged metal ions favour
oxygen coordination while a few heavier metals prefer
the sulphur donor sites [1, 2]. However, some sulphoxide complexes were found to contain both S- and
O-bonded sulphoxide ligands [3, 4].
X-ray structural analysis on (FeCI(DMSO)5)(Fe 2-
C160 ) complex showed [5] that the position of the
dimethylsulphoxide molecule (DMSO) became distorted between two positions with increasing temperature. The disorder in this compound is due to the
tendency of the angle of the oxobridge of the anion
(C13Fe-O-FeCI3) to straighten out, the effect being
transmitted to the cation via the short CI-S contact.
In this letter we report a study of the effect of
temperature on the magnetic susceptibility, dielectric
constant and electrical conductivity of the neutral
complex ((DMSO)2FeCI2). This complex was found to
have a distorted square planar complex at room temperature, with two chloride ions and two oxygens of
sulphoxide groups lying around the Fe 2+ ions [5].
Such studies may yield information about the effect of
temperature on the structure and the donor sites of
DMSO in this type of complex