An Effective Route to Dinuclear Niobium and Tantalum Imido Complexes.

Abstract

Thermal treatment of the trichloro complexes [MCl3(NR)py2] (R = tBu, Xyl; M = Nb, Ta) (Xyl = 2,6-Me2C6H3) under vacuum affords the dinuclear imido species [MCl2(μ-Cl)(NR)py]2 (R = tBu, Xyl; M = Nb 1, 3; Ta 2, 4) with loss of pyridine. Complexes 1-4 can be easily transformed to the mononuclear starting materials [MCl3(NR)py2] (R = tBu, Xyl; M = Nb, Ta) upon reaction with pyridine. While reactions of compounds 1 and 2 with a series of alkylating reagents render the mononuclear peralkylated imido complexes [MR3(NtBu)] (R = Me, CH2Ph, CH2CMe3, CH2CMePh, CH2SiMe3), the analogous treatment with allylmagnesium chloride results in the formation of the dinuclear niobium(IV) derivative [(NtBu)(η3-C3H5)M(μ-C3H5)(μ-Cl)2M(NtBu)py2] (5). Additionally, the treatment of the starting materials 1 and 2 with the organosilicon reductant 1,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)-1,4-diaza-2,5-cyclohexadiene yields the pyridyl-bridged dinuclear derivatives [M2Cl2(μ-Cl)2(NtBu)2py2]2(μ-NC4H4N)2 (M = Nb 6, Ta 7). Controlled hydrolysis reaction of 1 and 2 affords the oxo chlorido-bridged products [MCl(μ-Cl)(NtBu)py]2(μ-O) (M = Nb 8, Ta 9) in a quantitative way, while the treatment of these latter with one more equivalent of pyridine led to complexes [MCl2(NtBu)py2]2(μ-O) (M = Nb 10, Ta 11). Structural study of these dinuclear imido derivatives has been also performed by X-ray crystallography.