Dehydrogenation of organolanthanide alkoxides and X-ray crystal structure of reaction product [(C ₅ H ₅ ) ₂ Yb(µ-OCHCCH ₂ )] ₂

[Cp3Yb] reacts with HOR (Cp = C5H5; R = CH2CHCH2, CH2CH2Me) in thf (thf = tetrahydrofuran) at room temperature to give complexes [{Cp2Yb(µ-OR)}2], which are dehydrogenated to yield the new complex [{Cp2Yb(µ-OCHCCH2)}2] in refluxing thf solution; the X-ray crystal structure shows that the new complex is dimeric with oxygen atoms as bridging groups.