Amido group, conjugate base

Other cases in which second-order kinetics seemed to require an associative mechanism have subsequently been found to have a conjugate base mechanism (called S ICB, for substitution, nucleophilic, unimolecular, conjugate base in Ingold s notation ). These reactions depend on amine, ammine, or aqua ligands that can lose protons to form amido or hydroxo species that are then more likely to lose one of the other ligands. If the structure allows it, the ligand Irons to the amido or hydroxo group is frequently the one lost. 

The amido group in the conjugate base apparently exerts a considerable labilizing effect, particularly with cobalt(III) (27S) the ability of this group to act as a 7r-donor and facilitate the formation of a 5-coordinate intermediate may be important (225). 

Barret and Hill have extensively studied the reactivity and catalytic activity of NHC-supported Group 2 amido complexes. Similar to several reports with the alkali metals, tricoordinate NHC-alkaline earth metal complexes 58 could be formed directly from the corresponding conjugate acid by addition of a metal amide salt (Scheme 5.8). Whereas carbene-Li complexes were found to be excellent carbene transfer reagents, 58 could function as a stable carbene equivalent. Indeed, in the presence of Lewis base donors such as triphenylphosphine oxide or protic substrates such as 2-methoxyethylamine, liberation of the free carbene was observed by and NMR. While the authors did not attempt to isolate this free carbene or investigate any additional reactivity, they claimed that the carbene was dissociated under catalyt-ically relevant conditions. 

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