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Updated: Feb 5, 2026
Crystallizing Membrane Proteins for Structure Determination using Lipidic Mesophases
Published on: November 21, 2010
Crystal structure of tetra-kis-(μ
Ugochukwu Okeke1, Raymond Otchere1, Yilma Gultneh1
1Department of Chemistry, Howard University, 525 College Street NW, Washington, DC 20059, USA.
Abstract:
The title compound, [Zn3(C14H11Br2N2O)4](ClO4)2·2CH3CN, crystallizes as a symmetrical trinuclear cation with all three metal atoms being located on a twofold rotation axis. It contains a tetra-hedral ZnII atom that bridges two six-coordinate ZnII atoms. The complex contains N- and O-donor atoms of four tridentate 2,4-di-bromo-6-{[2-(pyridin-2-yl)eth-yl]imino-meth-yl}phenolate ligands. The ratio of ZnII atoms to ligands is 3:4. The two terminal ZnII cations adopt distorted octa-hedral geometries and the central ZnII cation adopts a distorted tetra-hedral geometry. In the cation there are π-π inter-actions between the di-bromo-phenyl rings, as well as halogen-bonding inter-actions between the di-bromo-phenyl rings in the cation, which stabilize its conformation. In addition, there are C-H⋯O inter-actions between the anions and both the cations and solvent mol-ecules as well as C-H⋯N inter-actions between the cation and solvent mol-ecules. These inter-species inter-actions link the cations, anions and solvent mol-ecules into a complex three-dimensional array.
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