T
he addition of t
he ambip
hilic compound (Me
2PCH
2AlMe
2)
2 (
1) to Cp*R
hMe
2(DMSO) (DMSO =dimet
hylsulfoxide) (
2) gives Cp*R
hMe
2(PMe
2CH
2AlMe
2·DMSO) (
3·DMSO). T
he addition of Lewis acids(LA) suc
h as La(dbm)
3 (dbm = dibenzoylmet
hane) and AlMe
3 to a solution of complex
3·DMSO givesa competition reaction t
hat results in t
he formation of LA·DMSO and Cp*R
hMe
2(PMe
2CH
2AlMe
2) (
3).W
hen
heated to 40
C, complex
3 ionizes to a putative zwitterionic species, Cp*R
h+Me(PMe
2CH
2AlMe
3-)(
3'), w
hic
h is converted to [Cp*R
h(Me)(
2-
hars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
2-Me
2PCH
2)]
2 (
4) irreversibly. Spin saturation transferexperiments demonstrated t
hat t
he rate of t
he met
hyl abstraction by t
he alane moiety was 0.76 ± 0.09s
-1, w
hile t
he rate of abstraction of t
he met
hyl in Cp*R
hMe
2(PMe
3) by AlMe
3 was 0.10 ± 0.02 s
-1. T
hezwitterionic species
3' could be trapped in solution by addition of PMe
3 to afford bot
h Cp*R
h+Me(PMe
3)(Me
2PCH
2AlMe
3-) (
5) and [Cp*R
h+Me(PMe
3)(Me
2PCH
2AlMe
2)]AlMe
4- (
6). W
hen compound
1 was addedto complex
3', t
he formation of t
he zwitterionic complex Cp*R
h+Me(
hars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
2-Me
2PCH
2Al
-Me
2CH
2PMe
2) (
7)was observed.