Synthesis and X-ray crystal structure of monomeric lanthanocene aryloxide complexes with a tridentate Schiff base ligand

Reaction of tris(cyclopentadienyl)lanthanide with the tridentate Schiff base N-1-(ortho-methoxyphenyl)salicylideneamine in THF at room temperature affords the isolation of monomeric lanthanocene Schiff base complexes, (η5-C5H5)2Ln (OC14H13NO) (Ln=Sm (1), Er (2), Dy (3), Y (4)), which have been characterized by elemental analysis and mass spectra. The X-ray determination of 1 indicates that the complex is monomeric in which the metal center is coordinatively saturated by two cyclopentadienyl rings and two oxygens and one nitrogen from the Schiff base ligand. The average Sm–C bond distance is 2.723(7) Å, while those of the metal center to the Schiff base oxygens and nitrogen atoms are 2.232(4), 2.572(4) and 2.534(4) Å, respectively.