Syntheses of Dianionic α-Iminopyridine Rare-Earth Metal Complexes and Their Catalytic Acitivities toward Dehydrogenative Coupling of Amines with Hydrosilanes.

Reactions of [(Me3Si)2N]3RE(μ-Cl)Li(THF)3 with aminomethylene-substituted pyridine 2-[O(CH2CH2)2NCH2CH2NCH2]C5H4N (1) gave the dianionic α-iminopyridine rare-earth metal amido complexes {μ-η2:σ1:κ1:κ1-2-[O(CH2CH2)2NCH2CH2NCH]C5H4N}2RE2[N(SiMe3)2]2 (RE = Y(2a), La(2b), Pr(2c), Nd(2d), Sm(2e), Dy(2f), Er(2g), and Lu (2h)). However, reaction of [(Me3Si)2N]3Y(μ-Cl)Li(THF)3 with pyridin-2-ylmethyl-substituted amines such as 2-(RNHCH2)C5H4N (R = tBu (3a) and 2,6-iPr2Ph (3b)) or benzyl-substituted amine O(CH2CH2)2NCH2CH2NHCH2C6H5 (5) afforded the corresponding yttrium complexes containing monoanionic ligands [2-(RNCH2)C5H4N]2YN(SiMe3)2 (R = tBu (4a) and 2,6-iPr2Ph (4b)) or [O(CH2CH2)2NCH2CH2NCH2C6H5][(Me3Si)2N)]Y(μ-Cl)(μ-η3-O(CH2CH2)2NCH2CH2NCH2C6H5)Li(THF) (6). Dianionic α-iminopyridine rare-earth metal amido complexes showed high catalytic activities for the dehydrogenation coupling reaction of hydrosilanes and amines providing a variety of silylamines in high yields.