Synthesis and Thermal Behavior of Heteroleptic γ‐Substituted Acetylacetonate‐Alkoxides of Titanium

Abstract A series of heteroleptic titanium derivatives of general formula [Ti(OiPr) 2 (R‐acac) 2 ] with acetylacetonate ligands modified in the internal (γ‐ or 3‐) position by different substituents (R=OAc, NO 2 , Me, Et, Cl, Br) has been synthesized and completely characterized by liquid multinuclear NMR and FTIR. The influence of the nature of the group on the thermal stability of the different complexes was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and gave the following decreasing stability ranking: H<NO 2 <Cl<Me<Br<Et<OAc. DFT calculations showed that this ranking followed the same order as the stability of the keto‐enolate form compared to the β‐diketonate form. Other DFT calculations also confirmed that for these molecules the ligands degraded sequentially and that the singular high reactivity of the Et‐acac based complex could be due to the rupture of the C−C bond to lead to a CH 2 °‐acac radical, which triggers the decomposition.