Silsesquioxane-tethered fluorene

A new development in silsesquioxane ehemistry is the eombination of sil-sesquioxanes with cyclopentadienyl-type ligands. Reeently, several synthetie routes leading to silsesquioxane-tethered fluorene ligands have been developed. The scenario is illustrated in Seheme 47. A straightforward aeeess to the new ligand 140 involves the 1 1 reaction of 2 with 9-triethoxysilylmethylfluorene. Alternatively, the chloromethyl-substituted c/oxo-silsesquioxane derivative 141 can be prepared first and treated subsequently with lithium fluorenide to afford 140. Compound 141 has been used as starting material for the preparation of the trimethylsilyl and tri-methylstannyl derivatives 142 and 143, respeetively, as well as the novel zirconoeene complex 144. When activated with MAO (methylalumoxane), 144 yields an active ethylene polymerization system. 

In a recent paper, Duchateau et al. have extended this synthetic approach to a series of silsesquioxane-tethered fluorene ligands and the corresponding zircon-ocenes with various cyclopentadienyl ligands at Zr. The various possibilities are illustrated in Scheme 48. ... 

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