Syntheses and X-ray structures of half-sandwich o-methoxylbenzylindenyl zirconium complexes with coordinated THF

Two half-sandwich indenyl zirconium complexes [eta (5):eta (1)-C9H6-1-C(R-1 )(R-2)-o-C6H4-OMe]ZrCl3 . THF (R-1 = R-2 = Me (1); R-1 = Me, R-2 = Et (2)) were synthesized successfully from the reaction of trimethylsilyl complexes of the ligands with ZrCl4. The X-ray structures of them were also determin ed. In spite of the existence of two stereogenic elements, complex 2 was is olated as a single pair of enantiomers ((pR, S) and (pS, R)). And besides t he coordinated THF molecule in the crystal structure of complex 2, there is an additional THF molecule in the cell, which hardly has interaction with other atoms. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.