Synthesis of Chiral Rare Earth and Alkaline Earth Compounds. Magnetism and Catalytic Studies

The first chiral amidinate borohydride rare earth compounds and compounds based on (S)-HPEBA ((S,S)-N,N-bis-(1-phenylethyl)benzamidine) ligand were reported by Roesky et al. To continuing this work, the new chiral ligand (S)-HNEBA ((S,S)-N,N-bis-(1-naphthylethyl)benzamidine) were synthesized. The corresponding amidinate metal complexes were successfully obtained by amine elimination. The luminescent and magnetic properties of rare earth compounds were studied.

Alkaline earth metal compounds have been extensively studied as catalysts in synthetic chemistry. However, chiral amidinate alkaline earth metal complexes have never been reported. Chiral amidinate ligand (S)-HPEBA was introduced into the coordination chemistry of the alkaline earth metal as well as divalent lanthanides, their catalytic activities in hydrophosphination have been investigated. The Ba compound showed high catalytic activities in the hydrophosphination reaction.

Moreover, since rare earth metal COT complexes exhibit excellent SMM behavior, it is of great interest to study the magnetic behavior of COT amidinate complexes. Thus, amidine ligand (S)-HPEBA and (S)-HPETA are introduced into the corresponding COT amidinate complexes for magnetic properties studies. The Er Compound exhibited typical field-induced SMM behavior. Furthermore, inspired by the promising application of lanthanide SMMs and the research of SMMs based on sandwich type lanthanide complexes, a series of novel sandwich type complexes comprising of Pc and COT ligand were designed and synthesized.