Living 3,4-(Co)Polymerization of Isoprene/Myrcene and One-Pot Synthesis of a Polyisoprene Blend Catalyzed by Binuclear Rare-Earth Metal Amidinate Complexes.

Mononuclear amidinate yttrium complex C4 H9 C(NR)2 Y(o-CH2 C6 H4 NMe2 )2 (R=2,6-iPr2 C6 H3 ) and a series of binuclear rare-earth metal complexes bearing a bridged amidinate ligand [(RN)2 C(CH2 )4 C(NR)2 ][RE{CH2 C6 H4 (o-NMe2 )}2 ]2 (R=2,6-iPr2 C6 H3 , RE=Y, Lu, Sc) were synthesized and fully characterized. The catalytic behavior of these complexes for (co)polymerization of conjugated dienes such as isoprene and myrcene in the presence of co-catalyst [Ph3 C][B(C6 F5 )4 ] was investigated. These catalytic systems show impressively high activity and 3,4-regioselectivity in living (co)polymerization. The binuclear bridged amidinate yttrium catalytic system not only exhibits the highest activity among the reported catalytic systems for 3,4-polymerization of isoprene but also allows the steady polymerization in a living manner from -20 to 80 °C. Compared with the dramatic drop of 3,4-selectivity for the mononuclear analogue, the binuclear catalytic system still shows moderate 3,4-selectivity at 80 °C. Moreover, a facile one-pot synthetic strategy for a polymer blend containing 3,4- and 1,4-polyisoprene (PIP) was established through the in situ modification of the active amidinate yttrium species by addition of an excess amount of AlMe3 .

Syntheses, structures, and reactivities of homometallic rare-earth-metal multimethyl methylidene and oxo complexes.

Unsolvated, trinuclear, homometallic, rare-earth-metal multimethyl methylidene complexes [{(NCN)Ln(µ(2)-CH(3))}(3)(µ(3)-CH(3))(µ(3)-CH(2))] (NCN = L = [PhC{NC(6)H(4)(iPr-2,6)(2)}(2)](-); Ln = Sc (2a), Lu (2b)) have been synthesized by treatment of [(L)Ln{CH(2)C(6)H(4)N(CH(3))(2)-o}(2)] (Ln = Sc (1a), Lu (1b)) with two equivalents of AlMe(3) in toluene at ambient temperature in good yields. Treatment of 1 with three equivalents of AlMe(3) gives the heterometallic trinuclear complexes [(L)Ln(AlMe(4))(2)] (Ln = Sc (3a), Lu (3b)) in good yields. Interestingly, 2 can also be generated by recrystallization of 3 in THF/toluene, thereby indicating that the THF molecule can also induce C-H bond activation of 2. Reaction of 2 with one equivalent of ketones affords the trinuclear homometallic oxo-trimethyl complexes [{(L)Ln(µ(2) -CH(3))}(3) (µ(3)-CH(3))(µ(3)-O)] (Ln = Sc(4a), Lu(4b)) in high yields. Complex 4b reacts with one equivalent of cyclohexanone to give the methyl abstraction product [{(L)Lu(µ(2) -CH(3) )}(3) (µ(3) -OC(6)H(9))(µ(3)-O)] (5b), whereas reaction of 4b with acetophenone forms the insertion product [{(L)Lu(µ(2)-CH(3))}(3){µ(3)-OCPh(CH(3))(2)}(µ(3)-O)] (6b). Complex 4a is inert to ketone under the same conditions. All these new complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, NMR spectroscopy, and confirmed by X-ray diffraction determination.