Syntheses and structures of four antimony complexes with planar tridentate pyridine ligands

The syntheses and structures of four antimony chloride complexes with tridentate N,N,O Schiff base ligands are reported. The tridentate ligands derived from 2-acetylpyridine and various acid hydrazides all lost a proton upon coordination. The ligand was either negative or zwitterionic depending on the acid hydrazide. The complexes are water soluble although a hydrolysis reaction can occur. The appearance of the μ-dichloro-μ-oxo-tetrachlorodiantimonate(III) anion in one of the complexes was unexpected but appears to be related to the temperatures used in the synthesis. The variation in the distances in the various complexes and the anion are discussed using bond valence sum calculations.