Syntheses and X-ray structures of half-sandwich o-methoxylbenzyl-indenyl zirconium complexes with coordinated THF

Two half-sandwich indenyl zirconium complexes [η5:η1-C9H6-1-C(R1)(R2)-o-C6H4–OMe]ZrCl3·THF (R1=R2=Me (1);R1=Me,R2=Et (2)) were synthesized successfully from the reaction of trimethylsilyl complexes of the ligands with ZrCl4. The X-ray structures of them were also determined. In spite of the existence of two stereogenic elements, complex 2 was isolated as a single pair of enantiomers ((pR,S) and (pS,R)). And besides the coordinated THF molecule in the crystal structure of complex 2, there is an additional THF molecule in the cell, which hardly has interaction with other atoms.