Progress in Rare-Earth Metal-Based Lewis Pair Chemistry
Yiwen Guan, Kejian Chang, Qianlin Sun, Xin Xu
Abstract
Rare-earth (RE) metal-base Lewis pairs comprised of Lewis acidic RE metals and main group Lewis bases have been developed recently.Distinct from traditional reaction pathway mediated by RE metal complexes, it's the synergistic effect between Lewis acidic RE metal center and Lewis basic center that enables the activation of incoming substrates.This kind of extraordinary Lewis pairs can split the non-polar H-H bond, as well as react with carbonyl compounds, diazo compounds, azide compounds, etc., leading to a series of unique and intriguing RE metal complexes.Meanwhile, these Lewis pairs are also applied as catalysts for polymerization of conjugated polar alkenes and hydrosilylation of carbon dioxide with excellent results.Researches mentioned above are reviewed in this paper, and new prospects for the future development of RE based Lewis pairs are put forward.