Structural characterisation of 1- and 2-dimensional transition metal polymers using powder neutron diffraction

Powder neutron diffraction provides an alternate technique for the structural study of transition metal polymers and finds utility over standard X-ray methods in two significant ways. Firstly, due to a different instrument geometry, preferred orientation effects are removed from the system. The second advantage gained by utilising neutrons is that H atoms in the sample contribute much more to the nuclear scattering of the diffraction profile - allowing their atomic position to be accurately determined. In X-ray diffraction studies, where H atoms typically account for only ∼3-5% of the scattering from the sample, it is essentially impossible to refine their position in the molecular structure. The structures of several transition metal polymers have been determined using neutrons from the HIFAR reactor at ANSTO and the Powder Diffractometers HRPD and MRPD, along with Rietveld refinement methods. The 1-dimensional polymer dibromobis(thiazole)nickel(II) illustrated in the paper is characteristic of these types of systems which are comprised of transition metal centres bridged by halogen atoms with pendant amine side groups