First structural characterization of a zinc-bis(dialkylamide) compound:: Zn{N[C(CH3)2(CH2)3C(CH3)2]}

The reaction of two molar equivalents of Li{N[C(CH3)(2)(CH2)(3)C(CH3)(2)]} with ZnCl2 in diethyl ether yields the title compound 1, which was characterized by H-1,C-13 and N-14 NMR, melting point, elemental analysis, mass spectrometry and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The structural characterization permits the first direct comparison of di(aryl)amide and di(triorganosilyl)amide examples with a di(alkyl)amide composition, thereby probing the nature of the Zn-N interaction. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.