A Tale of Biphenyl and Terphenyl Substituents for Structurally Diverse Ketiminato Magnesium, Calcium and Germanium Complexes

In this paper, we have used two N,O‐ketiminato ligands (L1 and L2) with biphenyl and terphenyl substituent on the nitrogen atom. Deprotonation of L1 with KN(SiMe3)2 and subsequent reaction with MgI2 led to a homoleptic dinuclear magnesium complex (1) with a Mg2O2 four‐membered ring. Deprotonation with nBuLi and subsequent reaction with MgI2 afforded a unusual dinuclear magnesium complex (2) with a Mg2O2 ring. Extension of the ligand for calcium resulted in a trinuclear calcium complex (3) with six four‐membered Ca2O2 rings. We could not isolate any chelating complex when L2 was used as a ligand, and only oxygen bound magnesium (4) and calcium (5) adducts were isolated. DFT studies were performed to understand this dissimilar behavior. More diverse results were obtained when lithiated L1 and L2 were treated with germanium dichloride. We were able to stabilize a monomeric germylene monochloride (7) with L1. However, with L2, an unusual ligand scrambling, and a C−C coupling take place, leading to the formation of a secondary carbocation with GeCl3‐ as a counter‐anion (8). Besides, a germanium dichloride adduct (9) bound to the oxygen center of the ligand was obtained as the minor product. In this paper, we have described how a subtle change of substituent in a ligand framework can have a remarkable influence on the structures of the corresponding complexes. A variety of structurally characterized diverse magnesium, calcium and germanium complexes have been prepared using β‐ketiminato ligand bearing biphenyl and terphenyl substituent.