Organo-zirconates

The natural chemistry of titanium causes problems with organo-titanates in some applications. To overcome this, organo-zirconate products have been recently introduced. The structure and general principles of the zirconates are similar to the titanates and no separate discussion of them will be made, except to point out reasons why zirconates are preferred in some applications. 

These problems are largely eliminated if titanium is replaced by zirconium and hence organo-zirconates analogons to the organo-titanates have been developed. They are considerably more expensive to prodnce than the titanates and hence are unlikely to completely replace them. The same qnestions over hydrolytic stability of the attachment of the organic functionalities apply as for the titanates. 

Organo-titanates, organo-zirconates, and zircoa-luminates have been advanced as adhesion promoters. Even so, they have not achieved the broad success that silane has achieved. In metal applications, the highly metallic nature of zircoaluminates promotes their reactivity with metal surfaces. Similarly, organo-titanates are well known as excellent wetting agents, they are able to function as adhesion promoters via chemical adhesion, and they provide more intimate contact between the adhesive or coating and the substrate. 

Major suppliers of organo-titanates, organo-zirconates, and zircoaluminates are Kenrich Petro-... 

Neoalkoxy zirconates also provide novel opportunities for the adhesion of fluorinated polymers to metal substrates because the introduction of a zirconate at the interface results in a metal oxygen zirconium VI organo fluoride. 

These organo-zirconium derivatives give good acylations with simple acid chlorides25 (and even better yields if treated with A1C13). Thus any linear hexene gives 2-octanone 75 by zirconation and acetylation, and even branched chain alkenes such as 76 are acylated at the terminus 78 by this method. 

PVC composites with cellulose fiber can be compatibilized using an organometallic zirconium compound. The preferred organo-metallic zirconium compound is cyclo[dineopentyl(diallyl)]pyro-phosphato dineopentyl(diallyl)zirconate (54). 

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