Alcohol adducts of alkoxides intramolecular hydrogen bonding as a general structural feature

Characterization of Zr{sub 2}(O{sup i}Pr){sub 8}({sup i}PrOH){sub 2} by {sup 1}H and {sup 13}C NMR spectroscopy, ir spectroscopy, and single-crystal x-ray diffraction ({minus}100{degree}C) is reported. The unit cell contains four half-dimers in the asymmetric unit, all of which differ only in the rotational conformation about Zr-O and O-C bonds. In each dimer, the edge-shared bioctahedron has two {mu}-O{sup i}Pr groups. On opposite sides of this Zr{sub 2}({mu}-OR){sub 2} plane, each dimer forms two hydrogen bonds, one each between a coordinated alcohol and a terminal alkoxide. The NMR spectra at 25{degree}C are so simple as to be structurally uninformative, a result of rapid fluxionality which includes, as one component, proton migration among all O{sup i}Pr units. At {minus}80{degree}C in toluene, the NMR spectra are now too complex to be accounted for by a single edge-shared bioctahedral structure. The hafnium analogue is isomorphous with the zirconium compound. Although Ce{sub 2}(O{sup i}Pr){sub 8}({sup i}PrOH){sub 2} is not isomorphous, it exhibits an analogous hydrogen-bonded structure in which the O{hor ellipsis}O distance is as short as it is in the Zr analogue, in spite of a metal-metal separation which is longer by 0.28 {angstrom}. The generality of hydrogen bonding between M-OR and M-O(H)R groups whenmore » they are aligned parallel in a metal cluster is reviewed. 44 refs., 2 figs., 4 tabs.« less