Issue 29, 2010

Synthesis of linked half sandwich rare-earth metal chlorido and borohydrido complexes and their catalytic behavior towards MMA polymerization

Abstract

A series of rare-earth metal complexes attached by an amino-functionalized cyclopentadienyl ligand (C5Me4H-C6H4-o-NMe2) (1) was prepared. The metathesis reaction of the ligand lithium salt [C5Me4-C6H4-o-NMe2]Li with LnCl3(THF)n afforded the dichlorido complexes [(C5Me4-C6H4-o-NMe2)2Ln2Cl4][LiCl(THF)2] (Ln = Y (2a), Lu (2b)), which are trinuclear connected by μ3-Cl and μ2-Cl multiple bridges. The straightforward metathesis reaction of Ln(BH4)3(THF)n with equimolar [C5Me4-C6H4-o-NMe2]Li in THF medium yielded the first linked half sandwich ligand stabilized THF-free rare-earth metal bis(borohydrido) complexes (C5Me4-C6H4-o-NMe2)Ln(BH4)2 (Ln = Sc (3a), Sm (3b)), respectively. The single component borohydrido complex 3a showed high activity towards the bulk polymerization of methyl methacrylate without specific control, which showed high iso-selectivity (mm = 80%) when the polymerization was performed in benzene medium, and switched to syndio-selectivity (rr = 74% at −20 °C) in polar THF medium, whilst the metal chlorido species was inert. The binary catalyst system of 3a/MgnBu2 had similar catalytic performances when compared with 3a in THF medium, but provided enriched syndio-control in benzene solution that was in contrast to the iso-control of 3a. Surprisingly, 3a upon activation with nBuLi displayed an extremely high activity (1.1 × 106 g molSc−1 h−1) and afforded syndiotactic PMMA (rr = 75%) at low polymerization temperature (−20 °C) in THF.

Graphical abstract: Synthesis of linked half sandwich rare-earth metal chlorido and borohydrido complexes and their catalytic behavior towards MMA polymerization

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Jan 2010
Accepted
17 May 2010
First published
22 Jun 2010

Dalton Trans., 2010,39, 6871-6876

Synthesis of linked half sandwich rare-earth metal chlorido and borohydrido complexes and their catalytic behavior towards MMA polymerization

Z. Jian, W. Zhao, X. Liu, X. Chen, T. Tang and D. Cui, Dalton Trans., 2010, 39, 6871 DOI: 10.1039/C001824D

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