Abstract
Aluminium and zinc complexes bearing the N,O-chelating Schiff base ligand 4,6-bis-1-(2-(dimethylamino)ethylimino)ethyl)benzene-1,3-diol, (C6H2(OH)(2)(NCH2CH2NMe2)(2)) (1a), have been synthesized. Bimetallic aluminium and zinc alkyl complexes (2a-4a) were prepared by treatment of the hexadentate 1a with the appropriate amount of AlMe3, ZnMe2 and ZnEt2, respectively. 2a has been characterized crystallographically, it lies on a crystallographic two-fold rotation axis and each aluminium centre adopts a five coordinate geometry. Complex 2a was tested as a catalyst in the ring-opening polymerisation of E >-caprolactone. We describe here the synthesis of two neutral ligands (1a and (C6H2(OH)(2)(C6H5NH2) (C=O(CH3)) (1b)) and demonstrate their application in the synthesis of molecular aluminium and zinc derivatives.