Earth-abundant main group metals are inherently labile, which has hitherto hindered their use in catalysis. In the present paper, we show that such lability can actually be exploited, by providing a dynamic coordination sphere that promotes the aluminum-catalyzed synthesis of isocyanurates. Isocyanurates find widespread use in building insulation and in the coatings industry and are prepared by the nucleophile-catalyzed trimerization of isocyanates, yet high catalyst loadings and substantially elevated temperatures are generally required. For the first time we report a highly active catalyst that trimerizes alkyl, allyl and aryl isocyanates, and di-isocyanates, with low catalyst loadings under mild conditions, based on aluminum bearing a hemi-labile pyridyl-bis(iminophenolate) ligand.

Dataset contains raw unprocessed data (the processed data were given in the supplementary information relating to the publication) as follows:

NMR spectroscopic data of metal complexes and catalysis products

Computational chemistry data (output files)

X-ray diffraction data for metal complexes and catalysis products

Infrared spectroscopic data for catalysis products

Mass spectrometry data for metal complexes and catalysis products.

Research results based upon these data are published at http://doi.org/10.1039/C9CC03339D