Crystal structures of aryloxide complexes of zinc embracing sodium aryl group interactions:: Na[Zn(2,6-diphenylphenoxide)3(H2O)] and Na[Zn2(2,6-diisopropylphenoxide)4Cl]•3THF

The addition of Na(2,6-diphenylphenoxide) to a diethyl ether solution of the monomeric Zn( 2,6-diphenylphenoxide)(2)(THF)(2) derivative affords the trisphenoxide complex, Na[Zn(2,6-diphenylphenoxide)(3)(H2O)] (1). An X-ray crystal structure analysis of 1 reveals the zinc to possess a distorted tetrahedral geometry and that the sodium counterion is essentially six-coordinate, being bound to the three oxygen atoms of the aryloxide ligands and the aromatic carbon atoms of one of the phenyl substituents on each of these ligands. An additional zinc phenoxide complex, Na[Zn,(2,6-diisopropylphenoxide)(4)Cl]. 3THF (2), was obtained during the synthesis of Zn(2,6-diisopropylphenoxide)(2)(THF)(2) in the presence of NaCl. The X-ray structure of 2 again shows the sodium in to be six-coordinate, involved in an eta(6)-interaction with the phenoxide pi-system and bound to two THF ligands and a chloride ion. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.