The syntheses of three mixed ligand chelate copper(II) complexes of the type [Cu(L)(acac)(H2O)]BPh4 where acac＝acetyleacetonate; L＝N,N-dimethyl,N'-benzylethane-1,2-diamine (L1), N,N-dimethyl, N'-2-methylbenzylethane-1,2-diamine (L2) or N,N-dimethyl,N'-2-chlorobenzylethane-1,2-diamine (L3) are reported and characterized by elemental analyses, spectroscopic and molar conductance measurements. The X-ray structure of complex 1 shows that the central copper atom is placed in a distorted square pyramidal geometry made by acac and diamine chelate in the base and a H2O molecule on the apex. The prepared complexes are fairly soluble in a large number of organic solvents and show positive solvatochromism. Calculations of SMLR (stepwise multiple linear regression) method was utilized to find the best model explaining the observed solvatochromic behavior and showed that among different solvent parameters, donor number (DN) is a dominant factor responsible for the shift in the d-d absorption band of the complexes to the lower wavenumber with increasing its values. The importance of substituent effect in diamine ligand on the spectral and SMLR measurements is also discussed.
