About Acetylacetonates

Acetylacetone Formula Diagram (C5H8O2)

Acetylacetonates are coordination complexes derived from acetylacetone and metal salts, most often salts of transition metals. These compounds allow many metal ions to be soluble in organic solvent, in contrast to most metal salts. This allows them to be used as catalyst precursors and reagents in reactions which occur in organic phase in chemical synthesis.

Acetylacetonates are frequently used as shift reagents in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a research and analysis technique that exploits magnetic properties of atomic nuclei to provide detailed information about a chemical substance. Additionally, some acetylacetonates can be used as precursors for deposition of thin films using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) or atomic layer epitaxy (ALE). Aluminum acetylacetonate has been used in MOCVD way to deposit films of crystalline aluminum oxide, while ALE can be used to deposit gallium oxide from gallium acetylactetonate. The latter compound can also be used as a precursor to catalytic growth of gallium nitride nanostructures.