Fluorine-based Zn salan complexes

Essien, Nsikak B. and Galvácsi, Antal and Kállay, Csilla and Al-Hilaly, Youssra and González-Méndez, Ramón and Akien, Geoffrey R. and Tizzard, Graham J. and Coles, Simon J. and Besora, Maria and Kostakis, George E. (2023) Fluorine-based Zn salan complexes. Dalton Transactions, 52 (13). pp. 4044-4057. ISSN 1477-9226

Abstract

We synthesised and characterised the racemic and chiral versions of two Zn salan fluorine-based complexes from commercially available materials. The complexes are susceptible to absorbing H2O from the atmosphere. In solution (DMSO–H2O) and at the millimolar level, experimental and theoretical studies identify that these complexes exist in a dimeric-monomeric equilibrium. We also investigated their ability to sense amines via19F NMR. In CDCl3 or d6-DMSO, strongly coordinating molecules (H2O or DMSO) are the limiting factor in using these easy-to-make complexes as chemosensory platforms since their exchange with analytes requires an extreme excess of the latter.