New tantalum ligand-free catalyst system for highly selective trimerization of ethylene affording 1-hexene: new evidence of a metallacycle mechanism

Rocío Arteaga-Müller; Hayato Tsurugi; Teruhiko Saito; Masao Yanagawa; Seiji Oda; Kazushi Mashima

doi:10.1021/ja8100837

New tantalum ligand-free catalyst system for highly selective trimerization of ethylene affording 1-hexene: new evidence of a metallacycle mechanism

J Am Chem Soc. 2009 Apr 22;131(15):5370-1. doi: 10.1021/ja8100837.

Authors

Rocío Arteaga-Müller¹, Hayato Tsurugi, Teruhiko Saito, Masao Yanagawa, Seiji Oda, Kazushi Mashima

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.

PMID: 20560633
DOI: 10.1021/ja8100837

Abstract

Mild and salt-free reduction of MCl(5) (M = Nb, Ta) has been achieved by using 3,6-bis(trimethylsilyl)-1,4-hexadiene derivatives as reducing reagents. The salt-contact-free low-valent TaCl(3) exhibits high catalytic activity for the trimerization of ethylene to 1-hexene (>1000 TOF) with excellent selectivity (>98%). This salt-free tantalum system enables us to observe new evidence for a metallacycle mechanism.