Fluorine-based Zn salan complexes.

We synthesised and characterised the racemic and chiral versions of two Zn salan fluorine-based complexes from commercially available materials. The complexes are susceptible to absorbing HO from the atmosphere. In solution (DMSO-HO) and at the millimolar level, experimental and theoretical studies identify that these complexes exist in a dimeric-monomeric equilibrium. We also investigated their ability to sense amines F NMR. In CDCl or d-DMSO, strongly coordinating molecules (HO or DMSO) are the limiting factor in using these easy-to-make complexes as chemosensory platforms since their exchange with analytes requires an extreme excess of the latter.