Spectroscopic studies. UV-Vis/NIR spectroscopy is used to give an insight into the electronic states of the metal centres. The solid-state spectrum of 1 (Figure ) displays a strong absorption band at 265 nm which is ascribed to the -* transition coming from the methylimidazole moiety. A relatively weaker band is present at around 303 nm which can be assigned to the metal-to-ligand charge-transfer band coming from