Abstract:
Over the last several years, the Parkin Group has developed several metal complexes incorporating the bulky tetradentate tripodal ligand, tris[(1-isopropylbenzimidazol-2-yl)dimethylsilyl]methane, [TismPriBenz]. Recently, the reactivity of the complexes [TismPriBenz]MgH and [TismPriBenz]MgMe toward carbonyl compounds and oxygen gas has been explored, resulting in novel magnesium alkoxide, enolate, and peroxide compounds. In particular, [TismPriBenz]MgOC(Me)=CH2 and [TismPriBenz]MgOOMe are the first structurally characterized acetone-derived enolate and methyl peroxide complexes of magnesium, respectively. Additionally, a set of Group 1 [TismPriBenz]M (M = Na, K, Rb, Cs) complexes has been synthesized and characterized. Together with [TismPriBenz]Li, these complexes constitute the first complete series of structurally characterized monomeric alkyl compounds of the nonradioactive alkali metals. Furthermore, these heavier alkali metal reagents can be used as starting materials to produce previously inaccessible metal complexes of the [TismPriBenz] ligand, including a group of [TismPriBenz]Yb compounds, the first lanthanide complexes of this ligand.
