Enhancing the synthetic efficacy of thorium tetrachloride bis(1,2-dimethoxyethane) with added 1,2-dimethoxyethane: Preparation of metallocene thorium dichlorides

The synthetic efficacy of thorium tetrachloride bis(dimethoxyethane), ThCl4(DME)2, is improved by adding 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) to the reaction mixture. The syntheses of the known metallocene dichlorides (C5Me5)2ThCl2 (1), (1,2,4-tBu3-C5H2)2ThCl2 (2), and (C5Me4Et)2ThCl2 (3) are used to demonstrate this finding. The full characterization and X-ray crystal structure of (C5Me4Et)2ThCl2 (3) is also reported.