Aluminium, organo-oxides

The metals of the aluminium sub-group are permanent in the air at ordinary temperatures, but when heated in oxygen or the air they become coated with their oxide. The volatility of the metals increases with the atomic weights, and the heavier metals are more easily reduced than those of lower atomic weight. The metals are all malleable, fusible, have small atomic volumes and form hydroxides, M(OH)3, which are typically amphoteric in the first three elements of the sub-group and basic only in the case of thallium. The last four members of the family form alums, and both aluminium and thallium form organo-metallic compounds, resembling zinc in this respect. 

Reduction of N-cyano-N-demethylconanine (28a) with lithium aluminium hydride, under nitrogen, afforded the methylenic ge/n-diamine (29) when the reaction was carried out at room temperature, and the secondary amine (28b) was formed when this reaction was carried out in a refluxing solvent (THF). However, in presence of air, the hydroxylamine (28c) and the imines (30) and (31) were formed in small amounts as a result of oxidation reactions. The organo-metallic intermediate (32) can explain the formation of these products. The reduction of (28a) with LiAlH4-AlCl3 led only to the secondary amine (28b). 

Catalysts used in the polymerization process. For example, commercial isotactic polypropylene is polymerized from a hetereogenous organo-aluminium-titanium complex (Ziegler-Natta process) [110,1260], or less frequently from metallic oxides of chromium, vanadium or molybdenum bonded to an inert support (e.g. the Philips process) [447]. Transition metal ion contents vary in different commercial samples (Table 2.4). 

In laboratory situations, metastable aluminium trifluoride phases having structures that are more open than the close-packed a-AIFa show some promise as acid catalysts. Other types of functionalized oxides, which have acidic properties and therefore potential catalytic value, include sulfated oxides (for a recent laboratory application in organo-fluorine chemistry see reference 3) and fluorinated clays." ... 

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