Ajay Venugopal

Dihydrogen addition in a dinuclear rare-earth metal hydride complex supported by a metalated TREN ligand.

The dinuclear lutetium dihydride dication supported by metalated tripodal ligands undergoes facile hydrogenolysis with H(2) to form a trihydride dication. Molecular orbital analysis shows that the LUMO is a bonding Lu···Lu orbital that is poised to activate dihydrogen.

Molecular Rare-Earth-Metal Hydrides in Non-Cyclopentadienyl Environments

Molecular hydrides of the rare-earth metals play an important role as homogeneous catalysts and as counterparts of solid-state interstitial hydrides. Structurally well-characterized non-metallocene-type hydride complexes allow the study of elementary reactions that occur at rare-earth-metal centers and of catalytic reactions involving bonds between rare-earth metals and hydrides. In addition to neutral hydrides, cationic derivatives have now become available.

CH Activation versus Yttrium–Methyl Cation Formation from [Y(AlMe4)3] Induced by Cyclic Polynitrogen Bases: Solvent and Substituent‐Size Effects

The reaction of 1,3,5-triisopropyl-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (TiPTAC) with [Y(AlMe(4))(3)] resulted in the formation of [(TiPTAC)Y(Me(3)AlCH(2)AlMe(3))(μ-MeAlMe(3))] by C-H activation and methane extrusion. In contrast, the presence of bulkier cyclohexyl groups on the nitrogen atoms in 1,3,5-tricyclohexyl-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (TCyTAC) led to the formation of the cationic dimethyl complex [(TCyTAC)(2)YMe(2)][AlMe(4)]. The investigations reveal a dependency of the reaction mechanism on the steric bulk of the N-alkyl entity and the solvent employed. In toluene C-H activation was observed in reactions of [Y(AlMe(4))(3)] with 1,3,5-trimethyl-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (TMTAC) and TiPTAC. In THF molecular dimethyl cations, such as [(TCyTAC)(2)YMe(2)][AlMe(4)], [(TMTAC)(2)YMe(2)][AlMe(4)] and [(TiPTAC)(2)YMe(2)][AlMe(4)], could be synthesised by addition of the triazacyclohexane at a later stage. The THF-solvated complex [YMe(2)(thf)(5)][AlMe(4)] could be isolated and represents an intermediate in these reactions. It shows that cationic methyl complexes of the rare-earth metals can be formed by donor-induced cleavage of the rare-earth-metal tetramethylaluminates. The compounds were characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffraction or multinuclear and variable-temperature NMR spectroscopy, as well as elemental analyses. Variable-temperature NMR spectroscopy illustrates the methyl group exchange processes between the cations and anions in solution.

Lewis Base Induced Reductions in Organolanthanide Chemistry

Recent years have seen a remarkable progress in the molecular chemistry of divalent lanthanides, which was previously restricted to just the three ions Eu, Yb, and Sm. Today even compounds of Tm, Dy, 5] Nd, and La [8] are known. Samarium(II) (usually as SmI2) is in widespread use as a powerful reducing agent in synthetic chemistry. It has a relatively strong negative redox potential (Sm/Sm E1/2 = 1.55 V) compared to europium and ytterbium and is not accesible under mild conditions. It should be noted that the potentials for the reduction M/M are generally more negative for organometallic systems than for reductions in aqueous solution and that both solvent and ligand contributions are important in lanthanide redox chemistry. A striking variant of redox reactivity of samarium compounds was found by Evans and Davis when they investigated pentamethylcyclopentadienyl lanthanide compounds. The tris(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) complex [(C5Me5)3Sm] was previously thought to be non-existent for steric reasons, but it turned out to behave as a strong oneelectron reducing agent analogous to the divalent compound [(C5Me5)2Sm]. The steric demand of the (C5Me5) ligand facilitates reduction to [(C5Me5)2Sm], whereby the third (C5Me5) unit is oxidized and then dimerizes to give (C5Me5)2. The term “sterically induced reduction” (SIR) [14]

Structural Variations and Molecular Dynamics of Rare‐Earth Metal Complexes with the N,N‐Bis(2‐{pyrid‐2‐yl}ethyl)hydroxylaminato Ligand

The reaction of the donor-functionalised N,N-bis(2-{pyrid-2-yl}ethyl)hydroxylamine and [LnCp3] (Cp=cyclopentadiene) resulted in the formation of bis(cyclopentadienyl) hydroxylaminato rare-earth metal complexes of the general constitution [Ln(C5H5)2{ON(C2H4-o-Py)2}] (Py=pyridyl) with Ln=Lu (1), Y (2), Ho (3), Sm (4), Nd (5), Pr (6), La (7). These compounds were characterised by elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, NMR spectroscopy (for compounds 1, 2, 4 and 7) and single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments. The complexes exhibit three different aggregation modes and binding motifs in the solid state. The late rare-earth metal atoms (Lu, Y, Ho and Sm) form monomeric complexes of the formula [Ln(C5H5)2{eta2-ON(C2H4-eta1-o-Py)(C2H4-o-Py)}] (1-4, respectively), in which one of the pyridyl nitrogen donor atoms is bonded to the metal atom in addition to the side-on coordinating hydroxylaminato unit. The larger Nd3+ and Pr3+ ions in 5 and 6 make the hydroxylaminato unit capable of dimerising through the oxygen atoms. This leads to the dimeric complexes [(Ln(C5H5)2{mu-eta1:eta2-ON(C2H4-o-Py)2})2] without metal-pyridine bonds. Compound 7 exhibits a dimeric coordination mode similar to the complexes 5 and 6, but, in addition, two pyridyl functions coordinate to the lanthanum atoms leading to the [(La(C5H5)2{ON(C2H4-o-Py)}{mu-eta1:eta2-ON(C2H4-eta1-o-Py)})2] complex. The aggregation trend is directly related to the size of the metal ions. The complexes with coordinative pyridine-metal bonds show highly dynamic behaviour in solution. The two pyridine nitrogen atoms rapidly change their coordination to the metal atom at ambient temperature. Variable-temperature (VT) NMR experiments showed that this dynamic exchange can be frozen on the NMR timescale.

Potassium hydroxylamine complexes.

Potassium complexes of N,N-dialkylhydroxylamines [KONR2, R=Me (1a), iPr (2a), CH2C6H5] were synthesized by the deprotonation of the corresponding N, N-dialkylhydroxylamines with KH. 1a and 1b [(KONMe2)(HONMe2)] dissolve in THF under the addition of an additional equiv of the parent hydroxylamine to give 1b and [(KONiPr2)(HONiPr2)(THF)] 2b. 1b, 2b and [(KONBn2)6(THF)4] (3) were characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopy, by elemental analyses, and by X-ray diffraction of single crystals. 1b and 2b crystallize as polymers, whereby compound 1b with smaller groups leads to higher coordination numbers at the potassium atoms (CN=7) and double-stranded more complex ladder-type aggregates, whereas 2b with the larger iPr groups contains potassium atoms with a coordination number of 5 and is a single-stranded polymer. The compound {[KON(CH2C6H5)2]6(THF)4} (3) exists in a hexameric bis-cubane-based form in the solid state. Quantum chemical calculations were undertaken to examine the nature of the hydrogen bonding in the (R2NO...H...ONR2) units of 1b and 2b, which is asymmetric in the first and symmetric in the second case.

Review: Structurally characterized α-diimine complexes of s- and p-block elements

This review provides an account on the structurally characterized s- and p-block element complexes of neutral α-diimine ligands and their chemical properties. These ligands provide the opportunity to control the coordination sphere around the main group element center and electronic properties of the complexes by varying the substituents present in them. In many instances, α-diimine main group element complexes themselves undergo reactivity via redox and free radical mechanisms. Graphical Abstract

Consequence of Ligand Bite Angle on Bismuth Lewis Acidity

Ligand bite angle, a common parameter to fine-tune reactivity in transition-metal chemistry, is used for the first time in main-group chemistry to control and tune the Lewis acidity in organobismuth cations bearing 2-[(dimethylamino)methyl]phenyl (Me2NCH2C6H4) and 2-(dimethylamino)phenyl (Me2NC6H4) ligands. The latter chelating ligand induces a shorter C-Bi-N bite angle, leading to a weaker Bi-N bond with a corresponding lower Bi-N σ*-acceptor orbital and hence exhibiting remarkably higher Lewis acidity. The Gutmann-Beckett method is successfully employed to quantify the Lewis acidity in organobismuth cations.

Hydroxylaminato yttrate and samarate complexes

The first homoleptic anions of hydroxylaminato ate-complexes of yttrium and samarium of the formulae K[M(ON(i)Pr(2))(4)] (M = Y, Sm) have been prepared and structurally characterised featuring variations of the hapticity of their ON(i)Pr(2) ligands leading to different chain connectivities in their solid state aggregates.

N-O bond cleavage during the deprotonation of N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)hydroxylamine

The reaction of N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)hydroxylamine with potassium hydride in pentane affords a product of the formula {K6[OSiMe3]4[ON(SiMe3)2]2}, resulting from deprotonation followed by N-O bond cleavage and 1,2-silylshift. The compound was characterised by elemental analysis and by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The aggregate consists of a K3O3 bis-cubane core, with N(SiMe3)2 groups at the oxygen atoms shared by the two cubes, andMe3Si groups attached to the four O vertices. Two weak K···N interactions are also detected in the solid state structure.