Syntheses and characterization of optically active cyclopalladated compounds containing ferrocenyl units.

The diastereoselective cyclopalladation of (S)-(-)-N,N-dimethyl-1-ferrocenylethlamine 1 produces (R,S,S,R)-(+)-[Pd{[(eta(5)-C5H3)-CH(CH3)-N(CH3)(2)]Fe(eta(5)-C5H5)}(mu-Cl)](2) 2. The absolute configuration of this complex has been determined by X-ray diffraction. Reactivity studies on the ''Pd(mu-Cl)(2)Pd'' units and the sigma(Pd-C) bond in compound 2 have been also undertaken and have allowed to isolate (R,S)-(+)-[Pd{[(eta(5)-C5H3)-CH(CH3)-N(CH3)(2)]Fe(eta(5)-C5H5)}Cl(L)] L=PPh(3) 3 or 1-Meimd 4 and [Pd{[(PhC=CPh)(2)-(eta(5)-C5H3)-CH(CH3)-N(CH3)(2)]Fe(eta(5)-C5H5)}Cl] 5. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd