Synthetic and Structural Studies of Ethyl Zinc -Amidoenoates and -Ketoiminates.

A set of heteroleptic ethyl zinc β-amidoenoates (, ) and β-ketoiminates () of the form [LZnEt] with varying steric bulk have been synthesised via the reaction of diethylzinc with β-aminoenoate ligands HL and HL and β-ketoimine HL. These complexes have been characterised via H and C NMR, mass spectrometry and single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which unambiguously determined all three structures as dimeric species in the solid state. We observe the unusual dimerisation of and through coordination of the central zinc atom to the methine carbon of the second monomer, which gives these complexes high reactivity. The thermal properties of complex are explored via thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), to investigate their potential as single-source precursors to zinc oxide, which shows that has a significantly lower decomposition temperature as compared to its bis-ligated counterpart [Zn(L)], which gives promise as a single-source precursor to zinc oxide.