Journal of Organometallic Chemistry 580 (1999) 210 – 213 A directly ring-to-ring linked ferrocene – pseudotitanocene complex Petr S te ˘pnic ka a , Jaroslav Podlaha a , Michal Hora ´c ek b , Vladimı ´r Hanus b , Karel Mach b, * a Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Nature Sciences, Charles Uniersity, Hlaoa 2030, Prague 2, Czech Republic b J. Heyrosky ´ Institute of Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dolejs koa 3, 182 23 Prague 8, Czech Republic Received 1 October 1998 Abstract Addition of excess ferrocenylacetylene (FcCCH) to [ 5 -(C 5 H 5 )Ti][: 2 : 2 -C 2 (SiMe 3 ) 2 ] 2 [ 5 -(C 5 H 5 )Mg] (1) affords the novel ferrocene – pseudotitanocene complex [ 5 -1,2,5,6-tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)-4-ferrocenylcyclohexa-1,4-dienyl]( 5 -cyclopentadienyl)- titanium(II), [ 5 -(Me 3 Si) 4 FcC 6 H 2 ]Ti( 5 -C 5 H 5 )(2), as the sole isolated titanium-containing product. Its structure was established by EI MS, NMR and UV–vis spectroscopy. The formation of 2 follows the general reaction route of terminal acetylenes with 1. © 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved. Keywords: Titanium(II); Ferrocene – pseudotitanocene complex; Ferrocenylacetylene; Cyclopentadienyl – cyclohexadienyl bond; NMR spectra 1. Introduction Looking for synthetic methods leading to organometallic compounds containing two or more metal atoms linked by a hydrocarbon chain, two main methods become obvious. Firstly, the direct use of a functionalized organometallic compound as the ligand in transition metal complexes and secondly, a synthetic transformation of an organometallic compound (its substituents) into a new compound. In the case of ferrocene derivatives, the first route may be docu- mented by many syntheses and applications of com- plexes with ferrocene-based ligand such as phosphines, mixed P,N -donors etc. reported in the literature [1]. As for the application of the second approach in the chemistry of ferrocenes, ethynylferrocene [2] is a fre- quently used, extremely versatile starting compound. One straightforward method for transformation of its triple bond into a linking group is the simple deproto- nation of ethynylferrocene yielding -complexes of the M–CCFc (Fc =ferrocenyl) type [3]. The formation of carbenes MC(R)CH 2 Fc (M =Ru [4]) or vinylidene complexes MCCFc(R) (M =Rh [5]) might serve as another example. Application of derivatives containing a spacer between ferrocenyl and ethynyl groups further increases the scope of accessible complexes [6,7]. In spite of a variety of synthetic tools, however, the com- binations of early and late transitions metals are rather rare [8]. For titanium, the following titanocene bis(acetylide) complexes have been reported so far: ( 5 -C 5 H 4 (SiMe 3 )] 2 Ti( 1 -CCFc) 2 , its tweezer complex with an embedded Ni(CO) group [9] and ( 5 - C 5 H 5 ) 2 Ti( 1 -CCCCFc) 2 [10]. We have used ethynyl- ferrocene to mimic the reaction of terminal acetylenes with the titanium – magnesium complex [ 5 -(C 5 H 5 )- Ti][: 2 : 2 -C 2 (SiMe 3 ) 2 ] 2 [ 5 -(C 5 H 5 )Mg] (1) [11]. In this reaction a terminal acetylene takes part in the forma- tion of a tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)-substituted cyclohexa- dienyl ligand affording the corresponding ( 5 - cyclohexadienyl)( 5 -cyclopentadienyl)titanium(II) com- plex (Scheme 1) [12]. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +42-2-858-5367; fax: +42-2-858- 2307. E-mail address: mach@jh-inst.cas.cz (K. Mach) 0022-328X/99/$ - see front matter © 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved. PII:S0022-328X(98)01147-4