Pyrazolylborate-zinc-nucleobase-complexes, 2:(1) preparations and structures of Tp(Cum,Me)Zn and Tp(Ph,Me)Zn complexes.

The interactions of the nine most significant nucleobases (thymine, uracil, dihydrouracil, cytosine, adenine, guanine, diaminopurine, xanthine, hypoxanthine, in their deprotonated forms) with zinc and with themselves in pyrazolylborate zinc complexes Tp(Cum,Me)Zn-base and Tp(Ph,Me)Zn-base are described. Except for guanine, the complexes Tp*Zn-base could be isolated in all cases. Structure determinations could be performed for seven of the eight product types. Except for dihydrouracil and xanthine, the zinc ion is attached to that nitrogen of the base which in nucleosides bears the sugar moiety. In the solid state, all zinc-bound nucleobases are involved in hydrogen bonding interactions. Except for xanthine, this includes homo base pairing across a crystallographic inversion center.