REACTIONS OF THE SCHIFF-BASES HN=CPH(2) AND PHN=CHPH WITH TITANOCENE-GENERATING AND ZIRCONOCENE-GENERATING COMPLEXES

The titanocene and zirconocene derivatives Cp(2)Ti(Me(3)SiC(2)SiMe(3)) and Cp(2)Zr(pyridine)(Me(3)SiC(2)SiMe(3)) generate under mild conditi ons unstable metallocenes ''Cp(2)M'' which react in situ with two mole cules of the ketimine HN=CPh(2) to form metallocene amido alkylideneam ido complexes Cp(2)M(NH-CHPh(2))(N=CPh(2)) (M = Ti (I), Zr (2)) by hyd rogen transfer of the ketimine moieties. By C-C coupling of two aldimi ne molecules PhN=CHPh, ''zirconocene'' affords the cyclic diamido comp lex Cp(2)Zr-N(Ph)-CHPh-CHPh-N(Ph) (3). The structures of the products have been established by X-ray structure analysis.