Cavitand Chemistry Nickel Half-Sandwich Complexes with Imidazolylidene Ligands Bearing One or Two Resorcinarenyl Substituents

Nallusamy Natarajan (1) , Thierry Chavagnan (1) , David Semeril (1) , Eric Brenner (1) , Dominique Matt (1) , Rengan Ramesh (2) , Loic Toupet (3)

1 Institut de Chimie de Strasbourg
2 Bharathidasan University [Tiruchirappalli, India]
3 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes

Two imidazolium salts, one with a single N-mu(4)-tetramethylenedioxyresorcin[4]arenyl substituent, the other with two, have been used as pro-ligands (LH) for the synthesis of nickel half-sandwich complexes of the type [NiCpClL] (Cp = cyclopentadienyl). NMR and X-ray structural investigations revealed that in both complexes the NiCp moiety is positioned at the wider entrance of the resorcinarenyl cavity, this location providing high steric encumbrance around the metal centre. Both complexes, once activated with NaBH4, catalysed the dimerisation of ethylene, the highest activity [555 mol(C2H4)mol(Ni)(-1)h(-1)] being observed with the complex bearing two cavitand substituents.

Keywords: Homogeneous catalysis; Nickel; Nitrogen heterocycles; Dimerization; Cavitands

Domains: Physics [physics]

Nallusamy Natarajan, Thierry Chavagnan, David Semeril, Eric Brenner, Dominique Matt, et al.. Cavitand Chemistry Nickel Half-Sandwich Complexes with Imidazolylidene Ligands Bearing One or Two Resorcinarenyl Substituents. European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 2018, 2018 (7), pp.890-896. ⟨10.1002/ejic.201701143⟩. ⟨hal-01737281⟩