Acetylene complexes with iron

The conditions for the synthesis must differ, as the electronic configuration of each metal changes, but the intermediate in each case probably is a complex in which acetylene and carbon monoxide are each linked to two metal atoms. Cobalt and iron compounds having both acetylene and carbonyl bridges have already been synthesized 27). The report of the preparation of a dimeric nickel hydrocarbonyl, [NiH(CO)a]2 by Behrens 28) may well lead to the isolation of a siipilar acetylene complex with nickel. 

In Table 2 appear complexes of transition metals with acetylenic compounds. A study was made of the structure and interconversion of acetylene complexes with binuclear transition metals, where acetylene lies parallel or perpendicular to the metal-metal bond" . Carbonyl alkyne complexes with binuclear iron give good separations in reverse-phase HPLC 4... 

In contrast to the reaction of an i72-CS2-rhodium complex with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate which gives rise to a metallocycle,186 the iron complexes 103 are converted by activated acetylenes into air-sensitive carbene complexes 104. Decomposition of the latter in air provides an unusual synthetic route to substituted tetrathiofulvene derivatives (Scheme 121).187... 

This observation may well explain the considerable difference between metal-olefin and metal-acetylene chemistry observed for the trinuclear metal carbonyl compounds of this group. As with iron, ruthenium and osmium have an extensive and rich chemistry, with acetylenic complexes involving in many instances polymerization reactions, and, as noted above for both ruthenium and osmium trinuclear carbonyl derivatives, olefin addition normally occurs with interaction at one olefin center. The main metal-ligand framework is often the same for both acetylene and olefin adducts, and differs in that, for the olefin complexes, two metal-hydrogen bonds are formed by transfer of hydrogen from the olefin. The steric requirements of these two edgebridging hydrogen atoms appear to be considerable and may reduce the tendency for the addition of the second olefin molecule to the metal cluster unit and hence restrict the equivalent chemistry to that observed for the acetylene derivatives. 

Substituted cyclopentadienones react with iron carbonyls to form stable, diamagnetic 7r-co triplexes of the type [Fe(CO)3(cyclopentadienone)] (215). The proposed structure is shown in (XX). These complexes undergo reactions typical of metal carbonyls, e.g., displacement of carbon monoxide by tertiary phosphines, but the carbonyl group of the ligand does not show reactions characteristic of a keto-group. These complexes are also formed by interaction of acetylenes with iron carbonyls (see Section VI,C). Interaction of tetracyclone and Fe3(CO)i2 gives unstable complexes which contain the sandwich anion [Fe(tetracyclone)2]2 analogous to the anion (XXV) (215). 

The ease with which olefins form complexes with metals naturally led to investigation of acetylenes as ligands but until recent years only a few ill-defined, unstable acetylene complexes of copper and silver were known. Now complexes of acetylenes with metals of the chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, and copper subgroups are known. These complexes fall naturally into two classes—those in which the structure of the acetylene is essentially retained and those in which the acetylene is changed into another ligand during complex formation. Complexes of the first class are discussed here and the second class is discussed in Section VI. 

Acetylene-vinylidene rearrangements of silylacetylene-iron carbonyl complexes have been observed,537 while iron-acetylide hydride complexes of the type [Fe(H)(C=CR)(dmpe)2], where dmpe=l,2-bis(dimethylphosphino)ethane, have been found to react with anions to afford substituted alkenyl complexes. It has been proposed538 that a likely reaction course for this latter rearrangement involves initial protonation of the cr-bound acetylide ligand at the carbon (I to the metal centre to form a vinylidene complex. Metal-to-carbon hydride migration in this vinylidene complex with attack by the anion would then lead to the neutral complex (see Scheme 106). A detailed mechanistic investigation has been carried out539 on the novel metathetical... 

A number of metal carbonyls and cyanides, particularly those of nickel and iron, form 7r-complexes with alkynes. These systems behave cat-alytically in the carbonylation of acetylene and in the formation of trimers (benzene) and tetramers (cyclooctatetraene). 

The reaction between acetylenes and ruthenium carbonyls produces a series of n complexes with cyclic ligands which, as in the iron system, have either the metal or a CO group incorporated into the ring. Accordingly, 3-hexyne 536) and hexafluoro-2-butyne 90) react with Ru3(CO)i2 to give the (substituted cyclopentadienone)tricarbonylruthenium complexes with structures presumably comparable to those of the iron complexes (93-95). Although diphenylacetylene will not react directly with Ru3(CO)i2 to produce this type of complex 536), it can be prepared 90) by treating Ru3(CO)i2 with tetracyclone in benzene under reflux. 

Yamazaki s complex (Structure 5) contains two alkyne molecules linked together to form a five-membered metallacycle. Arene-solvated cobalt atoms, obtained by reacting cobalt vapor and arenes, have been used by Italian workers to promote the conversion of a,w-dialkynes and nitriles giving alkynyl-substituted pyridines [20]. -Tolueneiron(0) complexes have also been utilized for the co-cyclotrimerization of acetylene and alkyl cyanides or benzonitrile giving a-substituted pyridine derivatives. However, the catalytic transformation to the industrially important 2-vinylpyridine fails in this case acrylonitrile cannot be co-cyclotrimerized with acetylene at the iron catalyst [17]. 

Some related carbonylation reactions of nickel complexes have been postulated to proceed via Ni—H species (128), and reactions of acetylenes with iron carbonyls in alkaline solution (233, 234) maY proceed via Fe—H intermediates (249). 

The best known example is the cyclization of butadiene and acetylene 121 14°). Butadiene forms cyclooctadiene and cyclododecatriene by the catalytic action of nickel, iron, and other metal complexes. By an experiment using an iron complex with deuterated butadiene, it was proved that no hydrogen shift takes place in the cyclization reaction 70>. 

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