Research news, Feb. 1st, 2016

  Sandwich Lutetacyclopentadiene with the Coordination of Lithium to the Diene Unit: Synthesis, Structure, and Transformation

Ling Xu, Yang Wang, Yu-Cheng Wang, Zitao Wang, Wen-Xiong Zhang,* and Zhenfeng Xi
 Organometallics 2016, 35, 5-8. 
 
 
 Metallacyclopentadienes of s-, p- and d-block metals have received considerable attention. However, rare-earth metallacyclopentadienes were not achieved until very recently, we reported the first well-defined f-block half-sandwich lutetacyclopentadiene (Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 6686-6689). The lutetacyclopentadiene shows the unique insertion reactivity towards some small molecules owing to the highly ionic character and the cooperative reactivity of two Lu–C(sp2) bonds (Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 15860-15866.). Herein we report the first synthesis and structural characterization of sandwich lutetacyclopentadiene with the coordination of lithium to the diene unit. Further transformation of sandwich lutetacyclopentadiene with inorganic salt KF and crown ethers providing novel lutetacyclopentadiene is explored.