Distorted zinc coordination polyhedra in bis-(1-eth-oxy-2-{[(2-meth-oxy-eth-yl)imino]-meth-yl}propan-1-olato)zinc, a possible CVD precursor for zinc oxide thin films

A new metal-organic precursor for the chemical vapor deposition of zinc oxide thin films, [Zn(C₉H₁₆NO₃)₂], has been synthesized and characterized by ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, single-crystal X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis. The asymmetric unit of the title compound consists of two mol-ecules (Z' = 2), with different zinc coordination polyhedra. In one mol-ecule, the metal atom is in a distorted trigonal-bipyramidal ZnN₂O₃ environment (τ₅ = 0.192) with a long bond to an ether O donor atom [Zn-O = 2.727 (6) Å]. In the other, the Zn atom is in a distorted ZnN₂O₄ octa-hedral environment with long bonds to the ether O donors of both ligands [Zn-O = 2.514 (4) and 2.661 (4) Å; O-Zn-O = 82.46 (14)°]. The crystal structure features weak C-H⋯·O inter-actions.