Crystal structures of a novel NNN pincer ligand and its dinuclear titanium(IV) alkoxide pincer complex

This report describes a synthetic protocols and the crystal structures involving a novel pincer-type H₃[NNN] ligand, namely di-μ-bromido-μ-{2-(2,2-di-methylpropanimido-yl)-N-[2-(2,2-di-methyl-propanimido-yl)-4-methyl-phen-yl]-4-methylaniline}-bis-[(diethyl ether)lithium], [Li₂Br₂(C₂₄H₃₃N₃)(C₄H₁₀O)₂] (1) and a dinuclear metal complex, namely di-μ-bromido-2:3κ⁴Br:Br-bis-{2-(2,2-di-methylpropanimido-yl)-N-[2-(2,2-di-methyl-propanimido-yl)-4-methyl-phen-yl]-4-methylaniline}-1κ³N,N',N'';4κ³N,N',N''-tetra-μ-iso-propano-lato-1:2κ⁴O:O;3:4κ⁴O:O-diiso-propano-lato-1κO,4κO-2,3-dilithium-1,4-dititanium, [Li₂Ti₂Br₂(C₂₄H₃₂N₃)₂(C₃H₇O)₆] or {[NHNNH]Ti(O Pr)₃(LiBr)₂}₂ (2). Complex 1, which sits on a twofold rotation axis, is a rare example of a pincer-type ligand which bears ketimine side arms. A unique feature of complex 1 is that the ketimine N atoms have an LiBr(Et₂O) fragment bonded to them, with the Li atom adopting a distorted tetra-hedral geometry. This particular fragment creates an LiBr bridge between the two ketimine sidearms, which leads to a cage-type appearance of the ligand. Complex 2 consists of the previously described ligand and a Ti^IV metal atom in an octa-hedral environment, and is located on an inversion center. Complex 2 crystallizes as a dinuclear species with the metal atoms being bridged by an LiBr entity [the Br atoms are disordered and refined in two positions with their site occupation factors refining to 0.674 (12)/0.372 (12)], and the Li cation being bonded to the isopropoxide O atoms (Li having a tetra-hedral coordination as in 1). The organic ligand of compound 2 exhibits disorder in its periphery groups; isopropyl and tert-butyl groups (occupation factors fixed at 0.6/0.4). The novel [NNN]H₃ pincer-type ligand was characterized by multinuclear and multidimensional NMR, HRMS and X-ray crystallography. The dinuclear metal complex 2 was characterized by X-ray crystallography. Although each structure exhibits donor N-H groups, no hydrogen bonding is found in either one, perhaps due to the bulky groups around them. One of the ethyl groups of the ether ligand of 1 is disordered and refined in two parts with site-occupation factors of 0.812 (8) and 0.188 (8). One and a half toluene solvent mol-ecules are also present in the asymmetric unit of 2. The toluene mol-ecules were significantly disordered and could not be modeled properly, thus SQUEEZE [Spek (2015 ▸). Acta Cryst. C71, 9-18] was used to remove their contributions to the overall intensity data.