First Examples of a New Family of Redox-Functionalised Chelate Complexes Based on a 1,1′-Ferrocenediyl-Bridged Di(amido) Ligand

Treatment of Fe[(C5H4)NHPh]2 (1H2) with M(NMe2)4 (3a: M = Ti, 3b: M = Zr) in benzene afforded the chelates (1)Ti(NMe2)2 (4) and (1)Zr(NMe2)2(HNMe2) (5), respectively. Chelate 5 was cleanly oxidised by ferrocenium hexafluorophosphate in acetonitrile. Treatment of 5 with two equivalents of [Me2NH2]Cl (6) in benzene afforded (1)ZrCl2(HNMe2) (7). The chelates 5 and 7 were characterised by X-ray structure analyses. The new redox-active chelate complexes are precatalysts for the polymerisation of ethylene.