Nickel complexes of a bulky beta-diketiminate ligand

Nickel(II) chloride forms a complex with tetrahydrofuran, NiCl(2)(THF)(1.5), that can be used to prepare nickel chloride complexes of a bulky beta-diketiminate ligand L(Me). L(Me)NiCl](2) and L(Me)NiCl(2)LiTHF(2), which have tetrahedral geometries in the solid state, are in equilibrium with three-coordinate L(Me)NiCl. Thermodynamic parameters for the equilibrium between L(Me)NiCl](2) and L(Me)NiCl are DeltaH = 51(5) kJ/mol and DeltaS = 116(11) J/(mol.K). L(Me)NiCl forms a tetrahydrofuran complex with a binding constant of 1.2(2) M(-)(1) at 21 degrees C. The chloride complexes were used to generate a three-coordinate nickel(II)-amido complex. This amido complex, L(Me)NiN(SiMe(3))(2), is compared with L(Me)MN(SiMe(3))(2) (M = Mn, Fe, Co) (Panda, A.; Stender, M.; Wright, R. J.; Olmstead, M. M.; Klavins, P.; Power, P. P. Inorg. Chem. 2002, 41, 3909-3916). Trends in the metrical parameters of the three-coordinate L(Me)M(II) amido compounds are similar to the trends in three-coordinate L(tBu)M(II) chloride compounds (Holland, P. L.; Cundari, T. R.; Perez, L. L.; Eckert, N. A.; Lachicotte, R. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 14416-14424).