Mechanistic Investigation of Cycloreversion/Cycloaddition Reactions between Zirconocene Metallacycle Complexes and Unsaturated Organic Substrates.

Treatment of the diazametallacycle Cp(2)Zr(N(t-Bu)C=N(SiMe(3))N(SiMe(3))) (4a) with diphenylacetylene resulted in the formation of the azametallacyclobutene Cp(2)Zr(N(t-Bu)C(Ph)=C(Ph)) (6a) and Me(3)SiN=C=NSiMe(3) in high yield. A kinetic study using UV-vis spectroscopy was carried out on the transformation. Saturation kinetic behavior was observed for the system, which is supportive of a mechanism that involves a reversible formal [2 + 2] retrocycloaddition of 4a to generate the transient imido species Cp(2)Zr=N-t-Bu (7a) and Me(3)-SiN=C=NSiMe(3).