Titanium: Organometallic Chemistry

Abstract

The majority of titanium organometallic chemistry involves complexes in which the titanium is in its highest oxidation state (+4) with cyclopentadienyl derivatives as ancillary ligands. However, considerable chemistry has also been developed for complexes with titanium in the +3 and +2 oxidation state, with lesser amounts of chemistry developed for titanium in lower oxidation states (+1, 0). Since the early 1980s, chemists have placed considerable emphasis on the fine‐tuning of the structure and reactivity of titanium organometallic complexes. Particular emphasis has been devoted to tailoring the structure and reactivity of bis(cyclopentadienyl)titanium derivatives by incorporating electron‐donating, electron‐withdrawing, sterically demanding, or chiral substituents on the cyclopentadienyl ring. Considerable effort has gone into preparing ansa‐metallocenes with a wide variety of bridging groups and substituents to fine‐tune the reactivity catalysts prepared from them. In a similar manner, considerable effort has gone into the development of constrained geometry complexes. Several types of chiral substituted cyclopentadienyl, annulated cyclopentadienyl, ansa ‐metallocenes, and constrained geometry complexes have been prepared and applied to olefin polymerization and organic synthesis. Additional efforts at modifying the structure and reactivity by focusing on varying the oxidation state or coordination geometry at the titanium center have expanded over the past decade.