Synthesis of lanthanide pyrazolonate complexes by the reactions of 1-Phenyl-3-methyl-4-(2,2-dimethylpropan-1-oyl)pyrazol-5-one with metallic lanthanides. Crystal structures of [Ln(Bu t -PMP)3]2 (Ln = Gd, Tb, and Tm)

Lanthanide pyrazolonate complexes Ln(Bu ^t -PMP)₃ (Ln = Pr, Nd, Gd, Tb, Tm, and Lu) are synthesized by the reactions of 1-phenyl-3-methyl-4-(2,2-dimethylpropan-1-oyl)pyrazol-5-one (Bu ^t -PMPH) with metallic lanthanides in the presence of catalytic amounts of the corresponding metal triiodides. The yields of the products are close to quantitative ones. The synthesized compounds can sublime in vacuo (10^?3 Torr) in the temperature range from 235 to 270°C. X-ray diffraction analyses of the sublimed complexes show that they are dimers Ln(Bu ^t -PMP)₃]₂ (Ln = Gd, Tb, and Tm) in which metal atoms are linked by two bridging pyrazolonate fragments. The coordination environment of the lanthanide is a distorted one-capped trigonal prism.