Structural investigation of trifuoromethyl substituted bis(β-diketonato)-dichlorotitanium(IV) complexes displaying a mono-dinuclear equilibrium hydrolysis reaction

Abstract

Mononuclear Ti(β-diketonato)2Cl2 complexes with CF3-containing β-diketonato ligands, exhibit a monomer-hydrolysed dinuclear complex equilibrium when dissolved in CDCl3 containing trace amounts of water. This result is in contrast to the more electron rich derivatives with non CF3-containing β-diketonato ligands, for example, Ti(acac)2Cl2, which exsists only as the monomer in CDCl3 solution. The X-ray structure of the μ-oxo bridged hydrolysed dinuclear complex {Ti(CF3COCHCOCH3)2Cl}2(μ-O) reveals that the two mononuclear Ti units forming the dinuclear structure, both adopt a cis-trans-cis configuration with the CF3 groups of the trifluoroacetylacetonate ligands in trans positions. In solution both mononuclear Ti(β-diketonato)2Cl2 and hydrolysed dinuclear {Ti(β-diketonato)2Cl}2(μ-O) complexes exist as equilibrium mixtures of isomers. DFT calculations, used to determine the stability of the isomers, showed that for monomeric bis(β-diketonato)-titanium(IV) complexes, there is agreement with experimental solid state structures, in that the most stable DFT calculated isomer, of a specific complex, formed in the solid state. However for the dinuclear {Ti(CF3COCHCOCH3)2Cl}2(μ-O) complex, DFT calculations revealed that although most of the 10 isomers are experimentally possible due to the small energy difference obtained between the isomers, an isomer of higher energy formed in the solid state, suggesting that the equilibrium reaction between the monomer and hydrolysed dinuclear complex may contribute to the formation of the less stable dinuclear isomer {Ti(CF3COCHCOCH3)2Cl}2(μ-O) (1111).