title: Preparation of imidazolin-2-iminato molybdenum and tungsten benzylidyne complexes: a new pathway to highly active alkyne metathesis catalysts.
abstract: The reaction of [PhC[triple bond]MBr(3)(dme)] (dme=1,2-dimethoxyethane) with the hexafluoro-tert-butoxides LiX or KX [X=OC(CF(3))(2)Me] afforded the benzylidyne complexes [PhC[triple bond]MX(3)(dme)] (2a: M=W, 2b: M=Mo), which further reacted with the lithium reagent Li(Im(tBu)N), generated with MeLi from 1,3-di-tert-butylimidazolin-2-imine (Im(tBu)NH), to form the imidazolin-2-iminato complexes [PhC[triple bond]MX(2)(Im(tBu)N)] (3a: M=W, 3b: M=Mo). The propylidyne complex [EtC[triple bond]MoX(2)(NIm(tBu))] (4) was obtained by treatment of 3b with an excess of 3-hexyne. Complexes 3a and 3b are able to efficiently catalyse alkyne cross metathesis of various 3-pentynyl benzyl ethers 5 and benzoic esters 7 at room temperature, to afford 2-butyne and the corresponding diethers 6 and diesters 8. The tungsten complex 3a proved to be a superior catalyst for ring-closing alkyne metathesis, and the [10]cyclophanes 10 and 12 were synthesised in high yield from 1,3-bis(3-pentynyloxymethyl)benzene (9) and bis(3-pentynyl) phthalate (11), respectively. The molecular structures of compounds 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4, and 12 were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. DFT calculations have been carried out for catalyst systems based on the imidazolin-2-iminato tungsten and molybdenum complexes 3a and 3b by choosing the alkyne metathesis of 2-butyne as the model reaction; the studies revealed a lower activation barrier for the tungsten system.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig, Hagenring 30, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Birte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Haberlag
authors.forename: Xian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Brandhorst
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grunenberg
authors.forename: Constantin G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Daniliuc
authors.forename: Peter G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tamm