Salt metathesis reactions of LnCl3 (Sc, Y vs. Sm, Yb) with potassium diphenylmethanide {[2,2'-(4-MeC6H3NMe2)2CH]K(THF)}2

The outcome of salt metathesis reactions between the equimolar amounts of LnCl3 and dimeric potassium diphenylmethanide {[2,2'-(4-MeC6H3NMe2)2CH]K(THF)}2 depends on the rare-earth metal ion. In the case of ScIII and YIII, the reactions afford chlorido-bis(diphenylmethanido) complexes {[2,2'-(4-MeC6H3NMe2)2CH]2LnIII(μ-Cl)}2, in which the diphenylmethanido ligands perform bidentate k2-CN coordination according to the X-ray data. For YbIII and SmIII, these reactions result in the spontaneous reduction of LnIII to LnII and the formation of known bis(diphenylmethanido) complexes [2,2'-(4-MeC6H3NMe2)2CH]2LnII and the product of oxidative coupling of diphenylmethanido anions.