Coordination Chemistry of Aliphatic, Tripodal Ligands with Zinc Salts

The unsymmetrical, aliphatic tripods N(CH2CH2CH2NH2)2(CH2CH2OH)(H5‐2) and N(CH2CH2CH2NH2)2(CH2CH2CH2OH) (H5‐4) were prepared and their coordination chemistry with zinc salts was studied. The reactivity of the ligands with zinc chloride, zinc perchlorate and zinc bis(tetrafluoroborate) depends on the anion present. Ligand H5‐2 reacts with Zn(ClO4)2 under formation of the dinuclear centrosymmetric complex [(H4‐2)Zn]2(ClO4)2 (5) containing bridging η2‐alkoxy functions. Ligand H5‐2 reacts with Zn(BF4)2 under formation of the trigonal‐bipyramidal complex [(H5‐2)ZnF]BF4 (7), while the reaction of (H5‐4) with ZnCl2 yields the mononuclear, tetrahedral complex [(H5‐4)ZnCl]Cl (8) with an uncoordinated alcohol donor group. Complexes 5, 7 and 8 were characterized by X‐ray diffraction and NMR and IR spectroscopy.