High-Frequency and -Field EPR (HFEPR) Investigation of a Pseudotetrahedral CrIV Siloxide Complex and Computational Studies of Related CrIVL4 Systems

Chromium species are the active sites in a variety of heterogeneous catalysts, such as the Phillips catalyst, which is composed of Cr ions supported by SiO2 and is used to produce polyethylene. Among the catalytically relevant oxidation states of chromium is CrIV. Families of neutral, homoleptic, four-coordinate complexes, CrL4, with a variety of monoanionic, monodentate ligands, such as L = alkyls, aryls, amides, ketimides (R2C = N–), alkoxides, and siloxides, are available and can provide information regarding Cr sites in heterogeneous materials. For example, the previously reported siloxide, Cr(DTBMS)4, where DTBMS = –OSiMetBu2 (di-tert-butylmethylsiloxide), may be considered a molecular analogue of CrIV supported by SiO2. Such CrL4 complexes can have either a singlet (S = 0) or triplet (S = 1) spin ground state, and the spin state preferences of such complexes are not fully understood. A truly tetrahedral d2 S = 1 complex would exhibit no zero-field splitting (zfs), and the zfs is indeed small and obs...