Sunlight-induced dehydrogenation rearrangement of the dititanium complex [Ti(η5-C5HMe4)(μ-η1: η5-C5Me4)]2

Abstract Sunlight photolysis of the triplet state (S = 1) dititanium compound 1 induced its rearrangement to diamagnetic 2, which was a molecule containing two hydrogens less. The cage structure of 2 was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction and was corroborated fully by 1H and 13C NMR spectra that identified three simple bridging moieties — a hydrogen atom, a methine carbon and a methylene carbon. Its extremely short Ti−Ti distance 2.7537(7) A causes a strong distortion of the bridging fulvalene ligand, which becomes η5- bonded to one Ti(IV) and connected by two σ-bonds from nearest carbon atoms of its other ring to the other Ti(IV) of 2. Other photolytical byproducts in very minor amounts were also isolated, which differed from 2 by the absence of one bridging moiety: compound 4 lacked the methine group and compound 5 had no bridging hydrogen. In the latter cases, the Ti−Ti distance fell in the range 3.2077(8) – 3.5543(12) A and the fulvalene ligand was coordinated in the common µ-η5: η5-mode to both titanium atoms. The octamethylfulvalene ligands in 4 and 5 had their ring planes rotated mutually by about 40° in order to relieve the steric hindrance between their methyl groups. The thermally robust µ-oxo complex 3 obtained from reacting 2 with water showed a very similar structure.