Carbon–carbon bond formation in the reductive coupling of trifluoroacetonitrile and pentafluorobenzonitrile – synthetic routes to new perfluoroalkyl- and perfluoroaryl-substituted α-diimines: versatile synthons for heterocycle synthesis

Reductive coupling of perfluoroalkyl- and perfluoroaryl-nitriles with [(η5-C5H5)2TiCl]2 provides the corresponding μ-diiminatodititanium complexes. Protonolysis of the Ti–N bonds with ethereal HCl liberates the corresponding perfluoroalkyl- and perfluoroaryl-substituted α-diimines, two of which have been fully characterized by IR, 1H and 13C NMR, and X-ray crystallography.