Qasim A. Abbasali, F. Geoffrey N. Cloke, Peter B. Hitchcock and Stephen C. P. Joseph
Treatment of [TaCl2Me3] with Li2(cot″) (cot″ = 1,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)cyclooctatetraene] affords [Ta(η-cot″)Me3], which reacts with [NHPri2Et]Cl in dichloromethane to yield the complex [Ta{η8-C8H4(SiMe3) 2-1,4}Cl3]; X-ray crystallography shows the latter to contain a pentalene ligand bound through all eight carbons to a single tantalum centre.