Crystal structures of {1,1,1-tris-[(salicylaldimino)-meth-yl]ethane}-gallium as both a pyridine solvate and an aceto-nitrile 0.75-solvate and {1,1,1-tris[(salicylaldimino)-meth-yl]ethane}-indium di-chloro-methane solvate.

The sexa-dentate ligand 1,1,1-tris-[(salicyl-idene-amino)-meth-yl]ethane has been reported numerous times in its triply deprotonated form coordinated to transition metals and lanthanides, yet it has been rarely employed with main-group elements, including in substituted forms. Its structures with gallium and indium are reported as solvates, namely, ({[(2,2-bis-{[(2-oxido-benzyl-idene)amino-κ(2) N,O]meth-yl}prop-yl)imino]-meth-yl}phenololato-κ(2) N,O)gallium(III) pyridine monosolvate, [Ga(C(26)H(24)N(3)O3)]·C(5)H(5)N, the aceto-nitrile 0.75-solvate, [Ga(C(26)H(24)N(3)O(3))]·0.75C(2)H(3)N, and ({[(2,2-bis-{[(2-oxido-benzyl-idene)amino-κ(2) N,O]meth-yl}prop-yl)imino]-meth-yl}phenololato-κ(2) N,O)indium(III) di-chloro-methane monosolvate, [In(C(26)H(24)N(3)O(3))]·CH(2)Cl(2). All three metal complexes are pseudo-octa-hedral and each structure contains multiple weak C-H⋯O and/or C-H⋯N inter-molecular hydrogen-bonding inter-actions. The syntheses and additional characterization in the forms of melting points, high-resolution mass spectra, infra-red (IR) spectra, and (1)H and (13)C NMR spectra are also reported.