Reversible Sigma C-C Bond Formation Between Phenanthroline Ligands Activated by (C5Me5)2Yb

The electronic structure and associated magnetic properties of the 1,10-phenanthroline adducts of Cp*2Yb are dramatically different from those of the 2,2?-bipyridine adducts. The monomeric phenanthroline adducts are ground state triplets that are based upon trivalent Yb(III), f13, and (phen ) that are only weakly exchange coupled, which is in contrast to the bipyridine adducts whose ground states are multiconfigurational, open-shell singlets in which ytterbium is intermediate valent ( J. Am. Chem. Soc 2009, 131, 6480; J. Am. Chem. Soc 2010, 132, 17537). The origin of these different physical properties is traced to the number and symmetry of the LUMO and LUMO+1 of the heterocyclic diimine ligands. The bipy has only one 1 orbital of b1 symmetry of accessible energy, but phen has two orbitals of b1 and a2 symmetry that are energetically accessible. The carbon p-orbitals have different nodal properties and coefficients and their energies, and therefore their populationschange depending on the position and number of methyl substitutions on the ring. A chemical ramification of the change in electronic structure is that Cp 2Yb(phen) is a dimer when crystallized from toluene solution, but a monomer when sublimed at 180190 C. When 3,8-Me2phenanthroline is used, the adduct Cp*2Yb(3,8-Me2phen) exists in the solution in a dimer monomer equilibrium in which G is near zero. The adducts with 3-Me, 4-Me, 5-Me, 3,8-Me2, and 5,6-Me2-phenanthroline are isolated and characterized by solid state X-ray crystallography, magnetic susceptibility and LIII-edge XANES spectroscopy as a function of temperature and variable-temperature 1H NMR spectroscopy