A β-Carbon elimination strategy for convenient in situ access to cyclopentadienyl metal complexes† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental procedures and characterisation of all new compounds. See DOI: 10.1039/c7sc02986a Click here for additional data file.

The electronic and steric properties of tailored cyclopentadienyl (Cp) ligands are powerful handles to modulate the catalytic properties of their metal complexes. This requires the individual preparation, purification and storage of each ligand/metal combination. Alternative, ideally in situ, complexation protocols would be of high utility. We disclose a new approach to access Cp metal complexes. Common metal precursors rapidly react with cyclopentadienyl carbinols via b-carbon eliminations to directly give the Cp-metal complexes. An advantage of this is the direct and flexible use of storable preligands. No auxiliary base is required and the Cp complexes can be prepared in situ in the reaction vessel for subsequent catalytic transformations.