Syntheses of (C 8 H 8 )Ln(C 9 H 7 ) · (THF) 2 (Ln = Pr,Nd) and crystal structure of (C 8 H 8 )Pr(C 9 H 7 ) · (THF) 2

This paper reports two lanthanide complexes of formula (C 9 ,H 7 )Ln(C 8 H 8 ) · (THF) 2 where Ln is Pr or Nd, C 9 H 7 is indenyl, and C 8 H 8 is cyclooctatetraene (COT). The complexes were prepared by the reaction of LnCl 2 with K(C 9 H 7 ) and K 2 (C 2 H 2 ) in THF. (C 9 H 7 )Pr(C 8 H 8 ) · (THF) 2 crystallizes in THF at −15°C in the monoclinic space group P 2 1 2 with unit cell dimensions a = 8.446 (0), b = 10.083(2), c = 13.407 (3)Å, β = 105.48 (1)°, V = 1100.43 (35)Å 2 , D c = 1.52 g / cm 3 and Z = 2. The final R value is 0.033, R w value is 0.030, respectively. In (C 9 H 7 )Pr(C 8 H 8 ) · (THF) 2 a five‐membered ring centroid of C   9   H 7 , the C 8 H 8 ring centroid and the two oxygen atoms from the two THF molecules form a distorted tetrahedral geometry around the metal.