title: Preparation and structures of enantiomeric dinuclear zirconium and hafnium complexes containing two homochiral N atoms, and their catalytic property for polymerization of rac-lactide.
abstract: The hydroxy- and phenoxy-bridged dinuclear zirconium and hafnium complexes and of an amine-pyridine-bis(phenolate) ligand (H(2)L) were prepared from the reaction of Na(2)L and ZrCl(4) in the presence of 0.5 equiv of water in THF, while the reaction of H(2)L with NaH and then with ZrCl(4) in the freshly distilled THF gave an eight-coordinate bis(homoleptic) mononuclear complex L(2)Zr (). Two homochiral N atoms were created in each complex upon coordination of the unsymmetric tertiary amine ligands to the metal centers. Enantiomeric dinuclear complexes and both undergo spontaneous resolution during crystallization. The molecular structure of each enantiomer of and , as well as the structure of , was determined by X-ray analysis and the circular dichroism spectra of N(R)N(R)- and N(S)N(S)- were studied. The racemates of and catalyzed controlled polymerization of rac-lactide in terms of the linearity of molecular weight versus conversion, forming isotactic-rich polylactide in high yields with a narrow polydispersity.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, DUT-KTH Joint Education and Research Centre on Molecular Devices, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116012, China.
authors.forename: Minggang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hongjun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Licheng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun