Monocyclopentadienyl Ti-TEMPO complexes: Influence of pendant donors on the Ti-O bond strength

INOR 354

Kyung-sun Son, kson0701@stanford.edu1, Kuo-Wei Huang2, and Robert M. Waymouth, waymouth@stanford.edu1. (1) Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, (2) Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Bldg. 555, Upton, NY 11973
The homolysis of the Ti-O bond of Cp2TiCl(TEMPO) (TEMPO = 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl) is facile at 60°C to generate the transient Cp2Ti(III)Cl and the stable nitroxyl radical, TEMPO. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal the strength of the Ti-O bonds for biscyclopentadienyl Ti-TEMPO complexes to be on the order of 25 kcal/mol, whereas those for monocyclopentadienyl Ti-TEMPO complexes, such as CpTiCl(TEMPO), are on the order of 40 kcal/mol. Theoretical calculations reveal that the magnitude of these Ti-O bond strengths depends sensitively on the ancillary ligation at titanium and predict that monocyclopentadienyl Ti-TEMPO complexes containing pendant donor ligands would exhibit lower bond energies than CpTiCl(TEMPO). To confirm these predictions, we have prepared a series of monocyclopentadienyl Ti complexes containing pendant donors and nitroxyl ligands to evaluate the influence of both pendant donors and nitroxyl ligands on the structure and stability of the Ti-TEMPO complexes. These Ti-TEMPO complexes have also been evaluated for the copolymerization of ethylene and styrene.