Synthesis and X-ray Crystal Structures of Multinuclear Zinc Amidinate Complexes

The reactions of Me2Zn with carbodiimides RN=C=NR (R = Et, Ph) yielded the polynuclear zinc amidinate complexes {[MeZn]4[C(RNCNR)4]} [R = Et (1), Ph (3)] and {[MeZn]2[C(EtNCNEt)2(C2(NEt)3)]} (2). In addition, the reaction of {[ClZn]4[C(iPrNCNiPr)4]} with MCl3 gave the corresponding Lewis acid–base adducts {[MCl3]2[ClZn]4[C(iPrNCNiPr)4]} [M = Al (4), Ga (5)]. Compounds 1–5 were characterized by multinuclear NMR (1H, 13C) and IR spectroscopy, elemental analyses and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.