Chiral Benzamidinate Ligands in Rare‐Earth‐Metal Coordination Chemistry

AbstractThe treatment of the recently reported potassium salt (S)‐N,N′‐bis‐(1‐phenylethyl)benzamidinate ((S)‐KPEBA) and its racemic isomer (rac‐KPEBA) with anhydrous lanthanide trichlorides (Ln=Sm, Er, Yb, Lu) afforded mostly chiral complexes. The tris(amidinate) complex [{(S)‐PEBA}3Sm], bis(amidinate) complexes [{Ln(PEBA)2(μ‐Cl)}2] (Ln=Sm, Er, Yb, Lu), and mono(amidinate) compounds [Ln(PEBA)(Cl)2(thf)n] (Ln=Sm, Yb, Lu) were isolated and structurally characterized. As a result of steric effects, the homoleptic 3:1 complexes of the smaller lanthanide atoms Yb and Lu were not accessible. Furthermore, chiral bis(amidinate)–amido complexes [{(S)‐PEBA}2Ln{N(SiMe3)2}] (Ln=Y, Lu) were synthesized by an amine‐elimination reaction and salt metathesis. All of these chiral bis‐ and tris(amidinate) complexes had additional axial chirality and they all crystallized as diastereomerically pure compounds. By using rac‐PEBA as a ligand, an achiral meso arrangement of the ligands was observed. The catalytic activities and enantioselectivities of [{(S)‐PEBA}2Ln{N(SiMe3)2}] (Ln=Y, Lu) were investigated in hydroamination/cyclization reactions. A clear dependence of the rate of reaction and enantioselec