Rare-earth metal amido complexes supported by bridged bis(β-diketiminato) ligand as efficient catalysts for hydrophosphonylation of aldehydes and ketones

A series of rare-earth metal amides supported by a cyclohexyl-linked bis(beta-diketiminato) ligand were synthesized, and their catalytic activities for hydrophosphonylation of aldehydes and ketones were developed. Reaction of [(Me3Si)(2)N](3)RE(A mu-Cl)Li(THF)(3) with the cyclohexyl-linked bis(beta-diketimine) H2L (1) (L = Cy[NC(Me)CHC(Me)NAr](2), Cy = cyclohexyl, Ar = 2, 6-i-Pr2C6H3) gave the rare-earth metal amides LREN(SiMe3)(2) (RE = Nd(2), Sm(3), Dy(4), Er(5), Y(6)). All complexes were fully characterized by elemental, spectroscopic and single-crystal X-ray analyses. Investigation of the catalytic properties of the complexes reveals that these complexes exhibited a high catalytic activity towards the hydrophosphonylation of aldehydes and ketones in the presence of a very low loading of rare-earth metal amides (0.1-1 mol%) at room temperature in a short time.