Metallocenes 2-alkyl-4-aryl-substituted

Synthetic Approaches Toward 2-Alkyl-4-Aryl-Substituted ansa Metallocenes... 

Indanones are very useful and versatile intermediates in the synthesis of metallocene catalysts. Scheme 1 has the synthetic scheme originally used for the preparation of 2-alkyl-4-aryl-substituted ansa metallocenes [9-11]. In the first part of this sequence, the biaryl unit is assembled and the missing carbon atoms are introduced as a side chain. The reaction of 2-phenylbenzyl bromide with malonic acid ethyl ester under basic conditions, followed by a decarboxylation, affords the 2-(2-phenylbenzyl)propionic acid. Chlorination and Friedel-Crafts acylation yields the 2-methyl-4-phenylindanone in 93 % yield. From here, only a few standard transformations are required to complete the synthesis, finally yielding the desired metallocene. 

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