Silylalkyne complexes of tantalum with the general formula TaCl
3(R
1C
CR
2)L
2 (
1, R
1 = R
2 = SiMe
3,L
2 = DME;
2, R
1 = SiMe
3, R
2 = Me, L
2 = DME;
6, R
1 = R
2 = SiMe
3, L = py;
7, R
1 = SiMe
3, R
2 =Me, L = py) reacted with an internal alkyne to give corresponding alkyne complexes via an alkyneexchange reaction. These silylalkyne complexes were newly prepared and structurally characterized. Kineticmeasurements revealed that the rates of the exchange reactions of the DME complexes
1 and
2 werefirst-order dependent on the concentration of the complex and the reaction proceeded via dissociativepathway. The exchange reaction rates of the bis(pyridine) complexes
6 and
7 were slower. In contrast tothe DME complexes, the exchange reaction of
6 proceeded via an associative interchange pathway, andthe exchange mechanism for
7 was an associative pathway. During the exchange, two pyridine ligandscoordinated strongly to the tantalum center and the intermediate is proposed to be a bis(alkyne) complex.New tantalum complexes having functional alkynes (PhC
CR (R = COOMe, CONMe
2)) were preparedfrom the silylalkyne complexes via the alkyne exchange reaction.