Practical approach to structurally diverse monoimine salts and nonsymmetrical metallosalphen complexes.

A practical approach toward the synthesis of monoimine NBu(4) salts derived from Zn(salphen) complexes is described. The method involves nucleophilic addition of the hydroxide anion to the imine bond followed by hydrolysis. These monoimines provide accessible and useful reagents for the synthesis of (chiral) metallosalens with fine-tunable properties.