Abstract:Novel dinuclear Cu(II) and Ni(II) complexes of thiophene-containing bissalicylaldehyde Schiff base were synthesized with 5′-methylene-bis(salicylaldehyde)-5-methyl-2-[(2-aminophenyl)amino]thiophene-3-carbonitrile (L) and copper acetate or nickel acetate as raw materials. The complexes were characterized by titrimetric analyses, elemental analyses, UV-Vis, FT-IR spectra and thermal analysis (TG-DSC). The composition of the symmetrical binuclear Schiff base complexes was [M2L(H2O)2] (M = Cu2+, Ni2+). The central Cu2+ or Ni2+ ions were coordinated by imino nitrogen atoms, phenolic oxygen atoms and amino nitrogen atoms from the Schiff base ligand, and oxygen atoms from the coordinated water molecules, respectively. The pyrolysis reactions in the thermal decomposition processes of the complexes included dehydration and the oxidative decomposition of the ligand, at last only CuO or NiO was obtained.