Investigation into the reactivity of oxoniobocene complexes [Cp*2Nb(O)R] (Cp*=η5-C5Me5; R=H, OH, OMe) towards heterocumulenes: formation of carbamato and thiocarbamato complexes and catalytic cyclization of PhNCO

The reaction of [Cp*2NbCl2] (Cp*=η5-C5Me5) with KOH or Ba(OH)2·8H2O in THF was investigated under slightly modified conditions. In addition to the known complex [Cp*2Nb(O)H] (1), the new compound [Cp*2Nb(O)OH] (2) was formed. The reaction of 2 with PhNCS gave yellow [Cp*2Nb(O){SC(O)NHPh}] (3), while PhNCO formed yellow [Cp*2Nb(O){OC(O)NHPh}] (4). Complexes 3 and 4 were analytically and spectroscopically characterized. X-ray diffraction analyses of both compounds show that they contain either η1-S-thiocarbamato (3) or η1-O-carbamato ligand (4) along with a terminal NbO group. The reaction of 1 with one equivalent of PhNCO mainly gave orange [Cp*2NbH{OC(O)NPh}] (5) along with some 4. The molecular structure of 5 contains a niobocene unit comprising η2-N,O-carbamato chelate, which formally is a [2+2] cycloaddition product of the NbO group and the heterocumulene. A hydride ligand completes the coordination sphere around Nb. Reaction of 1 with excess PhNCO gave a mixture of heterocycles (PhNCO)2 (6) and (PhNCO)3 (7) in the approximate ratio 3:2. By contrast, the reaction of [Cp*2Nb(O)OMe] with PhNCO in molar ratios from 1:3 to 1:100 gave nearly pure triphenylisocyanurate 7.