Investigating the
relaxation of water
1
H nuclei induced
by paramagnetic Mn(II) complexes is important to understand the mechanisms
that control the efficiency of contrast agents used in diagnostic
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Herein, a series of potentially
hexadentate triazacyclononane (TACN) derivatives containing different
pendant arms were designed to explore the relaxation of the electron
spin in the corresponding Mn(II) complexes by using a combination
of
1
H NMR relaxometry and theoretical calculations. These
ligands include 1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid
(H
3
NOTA) and three derivatives in which an acetate group
is replaced by sulfonamide (H
3
NO2ASAm), amide (H
2
NO2AM), or pyridyl (H
2
NO2APy) pendants. The analogue of
H
3
NOTA containing three propionate pendant arms (H
3
NOTPrA) was also investigated. The X-ray structure of the
derivative containing two acetate groups and a sulfonamide pendant
arm [Mn(NO2ASAm)]
−
evidenced six-coordination of
the ligand to the metal ion, with the coordination polyhedron being
close to a trigonal prism. The relaxivities of all complexes at 20
MHz and 25 °C (1.1–1.3 mM
–1
s
–1
) are typical of systems that lack water molecules coordinated to
the metal ion. The nuclear magnetic relaxation profiles evidence significant
differences in the relaxivities of the complexes at low fields (<1
MHz), which are associated with different spin relaxation rates. The
zero field splitting (ZFS) parameters calculated by using DFT and
CASSCF methods show that electronic relaxation is relatively insensitive
to the nature of the donor atoms. However, the twist angle of the
two tripodal faces that delineate the coordination polyhedron, defined
by the N atoms of the TACN unit (lower face) and the donor atoms of
the pendant arms (upper face), has an important effect in the ZFS
parameters. A twist angle close to the ideal value for an octahedral
coordination (60°), such as that in [Mn(NOTPrA)]
−
, leads to a small ZFS energy, whereas this value increases as the
coordination polyhedron approaches to a trigonal prism.