Polynuclear manganese(II), cobalt(II)/(III), iron(II)/(III) and nickel(II) complexes of a group of flexible polydentate dihydrazone ligands, based on pyridine-2,6-dipicolinic (A), oxalic (B) and malonic (C) subunits are described. Structural details are reported for the linear dinuclear complexes [Ni2(2poap)2(H2O)2](NO3)4·2CH3OH·2.5H2O (1), [Mn2(pttp)(NO3)2(CH3OH)2(H2O)2](NO3)2·H2O (2) and [Mn2(mapttp)2(NO3)2(H2O)2](NO3)2·10H2O (3), a square tetranuclear complex [Co4(pttp)4]Br6·9H2O (4), a tetranuclear tetrahedral complex [Ni4(pttp)6](BF4)6F2·14H2O (7), and a mixed spin state tetranuclear Ni(II) complex [(2pyoap)2Ni4(CH3OH)4]·1.5CH3OH (10), with a diamond-like arrangement of metal ions. The paramagnetic metal centers are well separated in each case, leading to weak antiferromagnetic coupling or non-existent spin exchange.
