Tuning Lanthanide Reactivity Towards Small Molecules with Electron‐Rich Siloxide Ligands

Abstract

AbstractThe synthesis, structure, and reactivity of stable homoleptic heterometallic LnL4K2 complexes of divalent lanthanide ions with electron‐rich tris(tert‐butoxy)siloxide ligands are reported. The [Ln(OSi(OtBu)3)4K2] complexes (Ln=Eu, Yb) are stable at room temperature, but they promote the reduction of azobenzene to yield the KPhNNPh radical anion as well as the reductive cleavage of CS2 to yield CS32− as the major product. The EuIII complex of the radical anion PhNNPh is structurally characterized. Moreover, [Yb(OSi(OtBu)3)4K2] can reduce CO2 at room temperature. Release of the reduction products in D2O shows the quantitative formation of both oxalate and carbonate in a 1:2.2 ratio. The bulky siloxide ligands enforce the labile binding of the reduction products providing the opportunity to establish a closed synthetic cycle for the YbII‐mediated CO2 reduction. These studies show that the presence of four electron‐rich siloxide ligands renders their EuII and YbII complexes highly reactive.