Alkyl and alkylidene imido cyclopentadienyl tungsten complexes

This paper reports the alkylation of the cyclopentadienyl imido tungsten complexes [WCp′(NtBu)Cl3] (Cp′=η5-C5H5, η5-C5Me5) with β-hydrogen containing alkyl groups to render halo alkyl and trialkyl complexes [WCp′(NtBu)Cl3−nRn] (R=Et, n-Pr). Thermal decomposition of the trialkyl compounds gives the alkylidene derivatives [WCp′(NtBu)(CHR)(CH2R)] (R=Me, Et) by α-hydrogen elimination. All of the compounds were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and the molecular structure of [W(η5-C5Me5)(NtBu)Et3] was determined by X-ray diffraction methods.The authors acknowledge DGICYT (project PB97-0677) for financial support