Reductive Coupling Reaction of Aryliminomethylferrocenes with Triethyl Orthoformate Induced by Low‐valent Titanium

Reductive coupling reaction of aryliminomethylferrocenes FcCH = NAr(1, Ar=QHs (a), p‐ClC₆H₄ (b), p‐BrC₆H₄ (c), p‐CH₃C₆H₄ (d), m‐ClC₆H₄ (e)] with triethyl orthoformate (2) in Zn‐TiCl₄ system gave three kinds of products: 1, 3‐diaryl‐4, 5‐diferrocenyl imidazolidines (3), N, N‐disubstituted formamides (4), and 1, 2‐diferrocenyl ethylene (5). ¹H NMR spectra proved that all the compounds 3 obtained were dl‐isomers. All the new compounds 3 and 4 were characterized by elemental analysis, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR (for 3) and IR spectra. The molecular structure of 3c was determined by X‐ray diffraction.