Substituted pyridylmethylamide ligands and their zinc complexes

Mononuclear zinc complexes of a family of pyridylmethylamide ligands abbreviated as HL, HLPh, HLMe3, HLPh3, and MeLSMe [HL = N-(2-pyridylmethyl)acetamide; HLPh = 2-phenyl-N-(2-pyridylmethyl)acetamide; HLMe3 = 2,2-dimethyl-N-(2-pyridylmethyl)propionamide; HLPh3 = 2,2,2-triphenyl-N-(2-pyridylmethyl)acetamide; MeLSMe = N-methyl-2-methylsulfanyl-N-pyridin-2-ylmethyl-acetamide] were synthesized and characterized spectroscopically and by single crystal X-ray structural analysis. The reaction of zinc(II) salts with the HL ligands yielded complexes [Zn(HL)2(OTf)2] (1), [Zn(HL)2(H2O)](ClO4)2 (2), [Zn(HLPh3)2(H2O)](ClO4)2 (3), [Zn(HLPh)Cl2] (4), [Zn(HLMe3)Cl2] (5), and [Zn(MeLSMe)Cl2] (6). The complexes are either four-, five- or six-coordinate, encompassing a variety of geometries including tetrahedral, square-pyramidal, trigonal-bipyramidal, and octahedral.