Nonclassical β-hydrogen elimination of hydrosilazido zirconium compounds via direct hydrogen transfer.

Salt metathesis reactions of Cp(2)(NR(2))ZrX (X = Cl, I, OTf) and lithium hydrosilazides ultimately afford hydride products Cp(2)(NR(2))ZrH that suggest unusual β-hydrogen elimination processes. A likely intermediate in one of these reactions, Cp(2)Zr[N(SiHMe(2))t-Bu][N(SiHMe(2))(2)], is isolated under controlled synthetic conditions. Addition of alkali metal salts to this zirconium hydrosilazide compound produces the corresponding zirconium hydride. However as conditions are varied, a number of other pathways are also accessible, including C-H/Si-H dehydrocoupling, γ-abstraction of a CH, and β-abstraction of a SiH. Our observations suggest that the conversion of (hydrosilazido)zirconocene to zirconium hydride and silanimine does not follow the classical four-center mechanism for β-elimination.