Alkyl and alkylidene imido cyclopentadienyl tungsten complexes

This paper reports the alkylation of the cyclopentadienyl imido tungsten complexes [WCp'((NBu)-Bu-t)Cl-3] (Cp'= eta(5)-C5H5, eta(5)-C5Me5) with beta-hydrogen containing alkyl groups to render halo alkyl and trialkyl complexes [WCp'((NBu)-Bu-t)Cl3-nRn] (R = Et, n-Pr). Thermal decomposition of the trialkyl compounds gives the alkylidene derivatives [WCp'((NBu)-Bu-t)(CHR)(CH2R)] (R = Me, Et) by cc-hydrogen elimination. All of the compounds were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and the molecular structure of [W(eta(5)-C5Me5)((NBu)-Bu-t)Et-3] was determined by X-ray diffraction methods. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.