Metal Dependent Formation of Imidazolidine or Hemiaminal Ether Complexes from Multicomponent One‐pot Reactions

Abstract

Imidazolidinylpyridines, a new type of strictly face‐capping tridentate ligands, are reported as cheap and easily synthesizable alternates to well‐known crown and scorpionate ligands that are costly and cumbersome to be synthesized. The reported imidazolidinylpyridines have been made from the equimolar multicomponent mixture of N1,N2‐bis(substituted)ethane‐1,2‐diamine, pyridine‐2‐carboxaldehyde and MCl2, where M is Ni, Cu or Cd. The metal dependent formation of complexes of the expected imidazolidinylpyridine while using cadmium(II) ion and unexpected hemiaminal ethers when Ni(II)/Cu(II) was used are portrayed with the support of complete characterization including NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and solid‐state structures.