Synthesis, Structure, and Reactivity of Low-Coordinate 1,1,3,3-Tetraethylguanidinate Complexes

Diethylcyanamide is added to a hexanes solution of lithium diethylamide [LiN(CH2CH3)(2)] resulting in the formation of lithium 1,1,3,3-tetraethylguanidinate, [Li(mu-TEG)](6) (1). Upon successful isolation of 1, the metathesis reaction of MX2 (MX2 = MnBr2, FeBr2, CoBr2, and ZnCl2) with [Li(mu-TEG)](6) and lithium bistrimethylsilylamide, LiN(SiMe3)(2), was performed to generate dinuclear tetraethylguanidinate (TEG) complexes with the general formula [M(mu-TEG)-{N(SiMe3)(2)}](2) {M = Mn (2), Fe (3), Co (4), Zn (5)}. Further reaction of 2 with 2 equiv of ethanol (EtOH) and 2 equiv of 2,6-ditert-butylphenol (H-DBP) results in the formation of the manganese alkoxide, [Mn(mu-OEt)(DBP)(H-TEG)](2) (6). Elemental analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, and single crystal X-ray diffraction were utilized to characterize the six compounds.