[4-(2-Aminoethyl)-1,4,7,10-tetraazadecane]lithium chloride: a bilayered structure displaying the rare TRENEN ligand

Journal article, 2006

The pentadentate ligand TRENEN [4-(2-aminoetyl)-1,4,7,10-tetraazadecane] is not readily available in the pure state, but is present as a major impurity in commercial tetraethylene pentamine. Therefore, only four structures containing TRENEN have been reported previously. We report here the crystal structure of the title compound, [Li(trenen)]Cl or [Li(C8H23N5)]Cl. The Li atom has a distorted trigonal bipyramidal coordination geometry. The [Li(trenen)](+) cation is chiral since one of the N atoms is a chirogenic centre. A second type of chirality arises as a consequence of the chelatering conformations. In the racemic crystal structure, molecules assemble into bilayers via N - H center dot center dot center dot Cl interactions.