Metallocenes chirality

The induction of chirality in Cp- metal derivatives may also be studied. There are different ways that even achiral substituents on a cyclopentadienyl ring can give chiral metal complexes. The induction of chirality can proceed through their substitution pattern and/or a hindered ring or substituent rotation. The isotactic polymerization of propylene by means of metallocene catalysts is one example where such a metallocenic chirality has already been employed in an important stereoselective synthesis. 

From these proehiral metallocenes, chiral metallocenium ions can be produced in which chirality is centred at the transition metal itself. Due to the flipping of the polymer chain the metallocene alternates between the two enantiomeric configurations (Fig. 14) and produces a syndiotactic polymer [114-118]. 

Keywords Asymmetric hydrogenation. Simple olefins. Unfunctionalized olefins. Chiral metallocenes, Chiral phosphines, Rhodimn, Ruthenimn, Chiral titanocenes. Chiral zirconocene. Chiral cyclopentadienyUanthanides, Phosphanodihydrooxazole, Iridium, 2-Phenyl-l-butene... 

By using Brintzinger s ansa-titanocene C2H4(1-Ind)2TiCl2, Ewen first proved the correlation between metallocene chirality and isotacticity, a textbook example of shape selective catalysis. The C2-symmetric, racemic form yields isotactic polypropene while the achiral, meso form produces low molecular weight atactic polypropene. However, this titanocene is unstable at normal temperatures and has a quite low activity and a low stereoselectivity, producing... 

Enantiomorphic Site with Chain-End Control. In the case of less stereoselective Cz-symmetric metallocene catalysts, the magnitude of chain-end control can be comparable to that of site control. In this case, obviously, the former has to be added to the model using Markovian statistics. The probability parameters are the same found for pure chain-end control p si re), i.e., the probability of insertion of a si monomer enantioface after a monomer inserted with the re face, p re si), p si si), and p re re). In this case, the metallocene chirality prevents the equiprob-ability of the si olefin insertion after a re inserted monomer (see structure on the left in Scheme 36) and re olefin insertion after a si inserted monomer (see structure on the right in Scheme 36). 

This molecule possesses planar metallocene chirality. Unfortunately, neither this product nor its derivative ferrocenestriol displays any binding activity for activation of the estradiol receptors, whether in the a- or the p-isoform, nor for the androgen or progesterone receptors. This may be due to the absence of a polar OH function on the aromatic A ring, in which case one could envisage attachment of a -(CH2) OH entity to the molecule, as we did in the arene chromium tricarbonyl series [103]. 

Application of the (RyS) system to metallocenes The most widely employed system for specification of metallocene chirality was put forward by Schlogl in consultation with Cahn and Prelog [7 ]. The bond from the central metal atom to the ring carbon atom under consideration is treated as a formal single bond. The carbon atom is then considered as a chiral centre and (7 ,5) nomenclature is applied in the usual way. 

Appllca.tlons. The first widely appHcable Ic separation of enantiomeric metallocene compounds was demonstrated on P-CD bonded-phase columns. Thirteen enantiomeric derivatives of ferrocene, mthenocene, and osmocene were resolved (7). Retention data for several of these compounds are listed in Table 2, and Figure 2a shows the Ic separation of three metallocene enantiomeric pairs. P-Cyclodextrin bonded phases were used to resolve several racemic and diastereomeric 2,2-binaphthyldiyl crown ethers (9). These compounds do not contain a chiral carbon but stiU exist as enantiomers because of the staggered position of adjacent naphthyl rings, and a high degree of chiral recognition was attained for most of these compounds (9). 

A new generation coordination catalysts are metallocenes. The chiral form of metallocene produces isotactic polypropylene, whereas the achiral form produces atactic polypropylene. As the ligands rotate, the catalyst produces alternating blocks of isotactic and atactic polymer much like a miniature sewing machine which switches back and forth between two different kinds of stitches. 

Keywords stereoselective DIels-Alder reaction catalysts, DIels-Alder chiral metallocene catalyst review... 

Another cyclophane with a different type of chirality is [12][12]paracyclo-phane (27), where the chirality arises from the relative orientation of the two rings attached to the central benzene ring. Metallocenes substituted with at least two different groups on one ring are also chiral. Several hundred such... 

Recently the ylide 16 or the corresponding protonated ligands allowed, in presence of metallated bases of groups I and II (Li, K, Ba), the synthesis of the first phosphonium bridged metallocene 17 (dicyclopentadienylide) (Scheme 12). Chiral kalocene and barocene, observed only in racemic forms, have thus been obtained [57]. 

More recently, a very efficient asymmetric carbolithiation of N,N-dimethyl-aminofulvene 30, leading to a chiral cyclopentadienide anion, was reported by Hayashi et al. [6] for the synthesis of chiral metallocenes (Scheme 6). By adding an aryl lithium such as 31 complexed with a chiral ligand on fulvene 30, a cyclopentadienide ion 32 bearing a stereogenic center at the a position was generated. This anion was reacted with [RhCl(nbd)]2 to yield... 

Enantioselective hydrozirconation using, for example, chiral ansa-metallocenes [242] remain largely unexplored. 

A scandium complex, Cp ScH, also polymerizes ethylene, but does not polymerize propylene and isobutene [125]. On the other hand, a linked amidocyclo-pentadienyl complex [ Me2Si( / 5-C5 Me4)( /1 -NCMe3) Sc(H)(PMe3)] 2 slowly polymerizes propylene, 1-butene, and 1-pentene to yield atactic polymers with low molecular weight (Mn = 3000-7000) [126, 115]. A chiral, C2-symmetric ansa-metallocene complex of yttrium, [rac-Me2Si(C5H2SiMe3-2-Buf-4)2YH]2, polymerizes propylene, 1-butene, 1-pentene, and 1-hexene slowly over a period of several days at 25°C to afford isotactic polymers with modest molecular weight [114]. 

The isotacticities and activities achieved with nonbridged metallocene catalyst precursors were low. Partially isotactic polypropylene has been obtained by using a catalyst system of unbridged (non-ansa type) metallocenes at low temperatures [65]. A chiral zirconocene complex such as rac-ZrCl2(C5H4 CHMePh)2 (125) is the catalyst component for the isospecific polymerization of propylene (mmmm 0.60, 35% of type 1 and 65% of type 2 in Scheme Y) [161]. More bulky metallocene such as bis(l-methylfluorenyl)zirconium dichloride (126) together with MAO polymerized propylene to isotactic polypropylene in a temperature range between 40 and 70°C [162]. 

When a chiral ansa-type zirconocene/MAO system was used as the catalyst precursor for polymerization of 1,5-hexadiene, an main-chain optically active polymer (68% trans rings) was obtained84-86. The enantioselectivity for this cyclopolymerization can be explained by the fact that the same prochiral face of the olefins was selected by the chiral zirconium center (Eq. 12) [209-211]. Asymmetric hydrogenation, as well as C-C bond formation catalyzed by chiral ansa-metallocene 144, has recently been developed to achieve high enantioselectivity88-90. This parallels to the high stereoselectivity in the polymerization. 

Section 3 will deal with catalytic systems whose stereospecificity is mainly controlled by the chirality of the environment of the transition metal, independently of the possible chirality of the growing chain (chiral site stereocontrol). In particular, in Section 3.1 the chirality and stereospecificity of homogeneous catalytic systems based on metallocenes of different symmetries and in different experimental conditions will be reviewed. In Section 3.2 the chirality of model catalytic sites, which have been supposed for isospecific first-generation TiCl3-based and high-yield MgC -supported catalysts, is described. In Section 3.3 we will present a comparison between model catalytic sites proposed for heterogeneous and homogeneous stereospecific site-controlled catalysts. 

Molecular modeling studies relative to both preinsertion intermediates and insertion states indicate that for all the metallocenes from 1 to 39 of Scheme 1.2 (independent of their structure and symmetry), when a substantial stereoselectivity is calculated for primary monomer insertion, this is mainly due to nonbonded energy interactions of the methyl group of the chirally coordinated monomer with the chirally oriented growing chain. 

The possible occurrence of a back-skip of the chain for catalytic systems based on C2-symmetric metallocenes would not change the chirality of the transition state for the monomer insertion and hence would not influence the corresponding polymer stereostructure. On the contrary, for catalytic systems based on Cs-symmetric metallocenes, this phenomenon would invert the chirality of the transition state for the monomer insertion, and in fact it has been invoked to rationalize typical stereochemical defects (isolated m diads) in syndiotactic polypropylenes.9 376 60 This mechanism of formation of stereoerrors has been confirmed by their increase in polymerization runs conducted with reduced monomer concentrations.65 In fact, it is reasonable to expect an increase in the frequency of chain back-skip by reducing the monomer concentration and hence the frequency of monomer insertion. 

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