Abstract
An efficient and potentially scalable method is described for the synthesis of the silica-supported complexe [(≡Si–O−)NbMe4] 2 obtained by in situ alkylation of the surface-grafted niobium monomethyl trichloride [(≡Si–O−)NbMeCl3] (1). [(≡Si–O−)NbMeCl3] can be readily prepared by the reaction of NbMe2Cl3 with partially dehydroxylated silica at 700 °C (SiO2-700). Further reaction with ZnMe2 at room temperature rapidly forms the fully alkylated Nb complex. They were fully characterized by microanalysis, FTIR, mass balance, and solid-state NMR (1H, 13C, 1H–13C HETCOR, 1H–1H double quantum and triple quantum) and identified as [(≡Si–O−)NbMe4] . This niobium complex was highly active in the dimerization reaction of ethylene as well as dimerization of liquid olefins(1-hexene and 1-octene).