Copper(II) complexes of aminopolycarboxylate ligands with N2O2, N2O3 and N2O4 donor sets. The relationship between the ligand structure and molecular geometry of the complex

Abstract The article presents an overview of the results achieved during the last several decades on the synthesis and structural characterization of copper(II) complexes with different aminopolycarboxylates. Considering the structural varieties in designing aminopolycarboxylate ligands and significant stereochemical flexibility of the corresponding copper(II) complexes to adopt a wide range of coordination geometries, this review is mainly focused on the results related to the crystallographic characterization of the synthesized complexes. The ligands used for the synthesis of copper(II) complexes described in this article contain two amine nitrogen atoms and different number of the carboxylate oxygen donor atoms (N2O2, N2O3 and N2O4-type of ligands). Giving the importance to the biological relevance of the Cu(II) ion and broad aspects of potential application of aminopolycarboxylate ligands in human practice, the presented results could have some important implications for coordination chemists dealing with structural properties of aminopolycarboxylate-copper(II) complexes and their potential medicinal and biological applications.