Thermally Stable Half-Sandwich Benzhydryl Ln(II) (Ln = Sm, Yb) Complexes Supported by Sterically Demanding Carbazolyl and Fluorenyl Ligands

Abstract

A series of new isolable and thermally stable half-sandwich Ln(II) benzhydryl complexes coordinated by the sterically demanding ligands tert-butylcarbazol-9-yl [tBu4Carb]Ln[(p-tBu-C6H4)2CH](L) (Ln = Sm, L = DME (4); Ln = Yb, L = DME (5); Ln = Yb, L = TMEDA (6)) and 2,7-di-tert-butyl-fluoren-9-trimethylsilylyl [2,7-tBu2-9-Me3Si-C13H6]Yb[(p-tBu-C6H4)2CH](DME) (7) were synthesized by the alkane elimination reaction of [(p-tBu-C6H4)2CH]2Ln(Ln) (Ln = Sm, Yb) with tBu4CarbH and 2,7-tBu2-9-Me3Si-C13H7. X-ray analysis revealed that in 4, 5, and 7 the benzhydryl ligand is coordinated to the metal ion in an η3 coordination mode, while in 6 it is η1-bound. The type of coordination of the benzhydryl ligands in diamagnetic 5–7 is retained in their C6D6 solutions. Complexes 4–7 demonstrated unprecedented thermal stability and do not undergo decomposition after heating their solutions in C6D6 or toluene at 100 °C for 72 h. The reactions of [tBu4Carb]Ln[(p-tBu-C6H4)2CH](DME) (Ln = Sm (4), Ln = Yb (5)) with an excess of DME led to the formation of the symmetrical bis(carbazolyl) complex products [tBu4Carb]2Ln(DME)4 (Ln = Sm (8), Yb (9)) isolated in the form of separated ion pairs.