Synthesis and structural characterization of novel mixed-valent samarium and divalent ytterbium and europium complexes supported by amine bis(phenolate) ligands

The amine-elimination reactions of Ln[N(SiMe3)2]2(THF)2(Ln=Sm, Yb and Eu) with amine bis(phenol)s (L1H2=[BunN(CH(2)-2-OC6H(2)-3,5-But2)2]H2; L2H2=[Me2NCH2CH2N(CH(2)-2-OC6H(2)-3,5-But2)2]H2) were investigated. It was found that the number of heteroatom(s) in the ligands has a profound effect on the reaction outcome for the samarium systems. Reaction of the tetradentate diamino-bis(phenol)s L2H2 with Sm[N(SiMe3)2]2(THF)2 afforded a yellow solution, which indicated the complete oxidation of the SmII species, yellow being the characteristic color of SmIII species, while the same reaction with Eu[N(SiMe3)2]2(THF)2 gave a divalent complex with a dimeric structure (EuL2)2. Using the tridentate amine bis(phenol)s L1H2 as the reagent, the novel mixed-valent samarium complex SmIII2SmIIL1(4) was prepared by the same reaction. Both reactions of L1H2 with Yb[N(SiMe3)2]2(THF)2 and Eu[N(SiMe3)2]2(THF)2 yielded the normal divalent lanthanide complexes: monomeric complex for YbII, YbL1(THF)3 and dimeric complex for EuII, (EuL1)2. All of the complexes are well characterized with elemental analyses, IR and 1H NMR spectra for , and , as well as X-ray crystal structure determination in the cases of complexes , , and .