Aluminum-Triggered Condensation of Vicinal Silicate Groups into a Bicyclic Alumosilicate.

The molecular alumosilicates AlL{OSi(OtBu)2O}[OSi{(μ3-O)(MR2)2(μ-OtBu)}(OtBu)] (L = HC[CMeNAr]2-, where M = Al, R = Me (2), Et (3), and iBu (4) and M = Ga, R = Me (5)) were obtained from the reaction of AlL{OSi(OtBu)2(OH)}2 (1) with 1 or 2 equiv of the respective organometallic precursor. These compounds have a central bicyclic inorganic core formed by a six-membered AlSi2O3 alumosilicate ring with a Si-O-Si unit connected via a Si-O bond to a four-membered Al2O2 alumoxane ring. These compounds are formed even though 1 is specifically designed to yield 4R alumosilicate rings that would obey the Löweinstein's and Dempsey's rules about concatenation between silicon and aluminum tetrahedra in alumosilicates. We propose a mechanism for this rearrangement, based on the experimental evidence and density functional theory calculations, that involves a κ3μ2 coordination of a silicate unit to two AlMe2 groups, which weakens one Si-O bond and explains how aluminum atoms can cleave Si-O bonds. Furthermore, formation of the products experimentally confirms the theory that Al-O-Al groups can exist in alumosilicates if the oxygen atom belongs to an OH moiety.