Structural and synthetic studies of magnesium and zinc tolylformamidinate complexes
Date
2002
Authors
Cole, Marcus Lawford
Evans, David J.
Junk, Peter C.
Louis, Lance M.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
New Journal of Chemistry, 2002; 26(8):1015-1024
Statement of Responsibility
Marcus L. Cole, David J. Evans, Peter C. Junk and Lance M. Louis
Conference Name
DOI
Abstract
The reaction of MgBu₂ with 2.0 equivalents of di(p-tolyl)formamidine (HFTolP) affords the colourless
crystalline bis(formamidinate) species [Mg(FTolP)₂(thf)₂] (1), [Mg(FTolP)₂(dme)]_DME (3) and
[Mg(FTolP)₂(tmeda)] (4) in moderate to high yield when conducted in tetrahydrofuran, 1,2-dimethoxyethane
and toluene–TMEDA, respectively. Compounds 1, 3, 4 and the di(o-tolyl)formamidinate (FTolO) complex;
[Mg(FTolO)₂(thf)₂] (2), synthesised in a manner identical to that employed for the preparation of 1, have been
characterised by spectroscopy (¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, FTIR) and single crystal XRD. In the solid state, all four
species display monomeric octahedral bis(ƞ2-formamidinate) metal centres that differ solely on the basis of the
steric and structural requirements of both the coordinating solvent donor and the formamidinate. Attempts to
prepare analogous zinc complexes via the treatment of anhydrous ZnCl₂ with 2.0 equivalents of the known
complex [{Li(FTolP)(Et₂O)}₂], or treatment of HFTolP with 0.5 equivalents of ZnEt₂ primarily yielded the
novel lithium zincate species [(μ₅-O)Li₂Zn₃{(p-tolyl)NC(H)N(O)(p-tolyl)} ₆] (5), which includes a trapped
dilithium oxygen unit, and the precedented tetrazinc oxygen cluster [(μ₄-O)Zn₄(FTolP)₆] (6), respectively. The
molecular structures of complexes 1–6 are discussed, as are alternative routes to species 6.
School/Discipline
School of Chemistry and Physics
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
© The Royal Society of Chemistry and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 2002