Brønsted Base-Induced Rearrangement and Nucleophilic Addition of O/N-Functionalized NHCs and Relative Group 4 Metal Complexes for Ethylene Polymerization Catalysis

The O/N-functionalized NHC precursors 1-[RNHC(O)CH2]-3-[2-OH-3,5-tBu2-(C6H2)CH2]-imidazolium bromide, [H3(1a–f)]Br (a: R = 2,6-iPr2-(C6H3); b: R = 2,4,6-Me3-(C6H2); c: R = 2,6-Me2-(C6H3); d: R = 4-Me-(C6H4); e: R = 4-Cl-(C6H4); f: R = tBu), have been synthesized and characterized. Reactions between the aryloxy/amido-NHC precursors [H3(1a–e)]Br and Ag2O resulted in the NHC rearrangement to compounds [2-OH-3,5-(tBu)2-(C6H2)CH2][R]NC(O)-CH2-(C3N2H3) (4a–e) in 68–89% yield. The preliminary study suggested that, after deprotonation, the o-quinone methide (o-QM) intermediate was in situ generated by the C–N cleavage and proton transfer of the resultant aryloxybenzyl NHCs, followed by the nucleophilic attack of o-QM to the nitrogen atom of the amido group. Treatment of salicylaldimine-functionalized NHC precursor 1-iPr-3-[2-HO-C6H2-3,5-tBu2-C(H)═N-CH2CH2]-imidazolium bromide, [H2(2)]Br, with sodium hydride and group 4 metal sources MCl4(THF)2 (M = Ti, Zr) step by step afforded rare zwitterionic complexes [M(13)C...