Syntheses and Structures of Zinc Bis(phosphinimino)methanide Complexes

Reactions of bis(phosphinimino)methanes H2C(PPh2NR)(2) [R = SiMe3 ((LH)-H-1), Ph ((LH)-H-2), 2,6-iPr(2)-C6H3 (DIPP) ((LH)-H-3)] with ZnR2 (R = Me, Et) yielded the corresponding bis(phosphinimino)methanide zinc complexes LZnMe [L-2 (1), L-3 (2)] and LZnEt [L-1 (3), L-2 (4), and L-3 (5)]. Complexes 1-5 were characterized by heteronuclear NMR (H-1, C-13, P-31) and IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.