Structural and spectral studies of 3-(2-hydroxyphenylimino)-1-phenylbutan-1-one and its diorganotin(IV) complexes

Two diorganotin(IV) complexes of the general formula R₂Sn[Ph(O)C{double bond, long}CH-C(Me){double bond, long}N-C₆H₄(O)] (R = Ph, 1a; R = Me, 1b) have been synthesized from the corresponding diorganotin(IV) dichlorides and the ligand, 3-(2-hydroxyphenylimino)-1-phenylbutan-1-one (1) in methanol at room temperature in presence of triethylamine. Both compounds have been characterized by elemental analyses, IR and ¹H, ¹³C, ¹⁵N, ¹¹⁹Sn NMR spectra. The structures of the free ligand and the complexes have been confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction. There are three independent molecules in the crystal structure of the ligand 1 and in all three the O-bound proton is transferred to the imine nitrogen and makes an intramolecular N-H?O hydrogen bond with the carbonyl oxygen. In turn this makes an intermolecular hydrogen bond with the phenolic H atom. The crystal structure of 1 is trigonal and a new polymorph; triclinic and monoclinic forms have already been published. In 1a, the central tin atom adopts distorted trigonal-bipyramidal coordination geometry whereas in dimeric 1b it is distorted octahedral when including the intermolecular Sn-O(phenolic) bond [2.7998(20) Å]. The d (¹¹⁹Sn) values for the complexes 1a and 1b are -306.6 and -127.9 ppm, respectively, thus indicating penta-coordinated Sn centres in solution. © 2009.