Carbene complexes nucleophilic substitutions

Fischer alkenylcarbene complexes undergo cyclopentannulation to alkenyl AT,AT-dimethylhydrazones (1-amino-1-azadienes) to furnish [3C+2S] substituted cyclopentenes in a regio- and diastereoselective way along with minor amounts of [4S+1C] pyrrole derivatives. Enantiopure carbene complexes derived from (-)-8-(2-naphthyl)menthol afford mixtures of trans,trans-cycloipentenes and ds,ds-cyclopentenes with excellent face selectivity [75]. The mechanism proposed for the formation of these cyclopentene derivatives is outlined in Scheme 28. The process is initiated by nucleophilic 1,2-attack of the carbon... 

S+3C] Heterocyclisations have been successfully effected starting from 4-amino-l-azadiene derivatives. The cycloaddition of reactive 4-amino-1-aza-1,3-butadienes towards alkenylcarbene complexes goes to completion in THF at a temperature as low as -40 °C to produce substituted 4,5-dihydro-3H-azepines in 52-91% yield [115] (Scheme 66). Monitoring the reaction by NMR allowed various intermediates to be determined and the reaction course outlined in Scheme 66 to be established. This mechanism features the following points in the chemistry of Fischer carbene complexes (i) the reaction is initiated at -78 °C by nucleophilic 1,2-addition and (ii) the key step cyclisation is triggered by a [l,2]-W(CO)5 shift. 

Ru—C(carbene) bond distances are shorter than Ru—P bond lengths, but this can simply be explained by the difference in covalent radii between P and The variation of Ru—C(carbene) bond distances among ruthenium carbene complexes illustrates that nucleophilic carbene ligands are better donors when alkyl, instead of aryl, groups are present, with the exception of 6. This anomaly can be explained on the basis of large steric demands of the adamantyl groups on the imidazole framework which hinder the carbene lone pair overlap with metal orbitals. Comparison of the Ru—C(carbene) bond distances among the aryl-substituted carbenes show... 

Halide displacement from the carbene ligands of Ru, Os, and Ir halocarbene complexes by N-, O-, and S-based nucleophiles frequently leads to the formation of new heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes. This important class of reactivity will be discussed in more detail in Section V,D, but it is appropriate here to illustrate the scope of this method with several examples ... 

The reactivity displayed by the heteroatom-substituted Ru, Os, and Ir carbene complexes discussed in this section toward nucleophilic reagents contrasts sharply with that described for the Fischer compounds. The reactions of these Group 8 complexes are almost exclusively restricted to the metal-ligand framework, with only two related substituent substitution reactions being reported (44) ... 

It was noted in Section V,B that the chlorophenyl carbene complex 85 can be prepared by chlorine addition to carbyne complex 80. Treatment of 85 with one equivalent of PhLi does not afford 80, suggesting that the reaction sequence is reduction/substitution rather than substitution/reduc-tion. The recent report (127) of a nucleophilic displacement reaction of the molybdenum chlorocarbyne complex 87 with PhLi to generate phenylcar-byne complex 88 suggests that the intermediacy of the chlorocarbyne complex 86 in the above mechanism is not unreasonable. 

Several other observations suggest that nucleophilic carbene complexes, similarly to, e.g., sulfur ylides, can cyclopropanate acceptor-substituted olefins by an addition-elimination mechanism. If, e.g., acceptor-substituted olefins are added to a mixture of a simple alkene and the metathesis catalyst PhWCl3/AlCl3, the metathesis reaction is quenched and small amounts of acceptor-substituted cyclopropanes can be isolated [34]. 

Table 2.1. Heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes prepared from carbonyl complexes and carbon nucleophiles.

Carbonyl complexes also react with non-carbon nucleophiles. The resulting carbonic acid derivatives can serve as starting material for the preparation of bis-heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes [93]. Heterocyclic carbene complexes can be obtained from nucleophiles with a leaving group in -position (Table 2.2). 

Isonitrile complexes, having a similar electronic structure to carbonyl complexes, can also react with nucleophiles. Amino-substituted carbene complexes can be prepared in this way (Figure 2.6) [109-112]. Complexes of acceptor-substituted isonitriles can undergo 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions with aldehydes, electron-poor olefins [113], isocyanates [114,115], carbon disulfide [115], etc., to yield heterocycloalkylidene complexes (Figure 2.6). 

Haloiminium salts can react with metallates or similarly nucleophilic transition metal complexes to yield heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes (Figure 2.7) [120]. This reaction is closely related to the acylation of metallates with derivatives of carboxylic acids (Section 2.1.1.2). Examples are given in Table 2.5. 

Terminal alkynes readily react with coordinatively unsaturated transition metal complexes to yield vinylidene complexes. If the vinylidene complex is sufficiently electrophilic, nucleophiles such as amides, alcohols or water can add to the a-carbon atom to yield heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes (Figure 2.10) [129 -135]. If the nucleophile is bound to the alkyne, intramolecular addition to the intermediate vinylidene will lead to the formation of heterocyclic carbene complexes [136-141]. Vinylidene complexes can further undergo [2 -i- 2] cycloadditions with imines, forming azetidin-2-ylidene complexes [142,143]. Cycloaddition to azines leads to the formation of pyrazolidin-3-ylidene complexes [143] (Table 2.7). 

Diaminocarbene complexes were reported as early as 1968 [152], Preparation and applications of such complexes have been reviewed [153], Because of 7t-electron donation by both nitrogen atoms, diaminocarbenes are very weak tt-acceptors and have binding properties towards low-valent transition metals similar to those of phosphines or pyridines [18,153]. For this reason diaminocarbenes form complexes with a broad range of different metals, including those of the titanium group. Titanium does not usually form stable donor-substituted carbene complexes, but rather ylide-like, nucleophilic carbene complexes with non-heteroatom-substituted carbenes (Chapter 3). 

A further general route to heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes is based on the a-abstraction of nucleophiles from alkyl complexes (electrophilic abstraction Figure 2.13). 

As in carboxylic esters it is possible to substitute alkoxy groups of Fischer-type carbene complexes by non-carbon nucleophiles, such as other alcohols [73,214,218], enols [219], aliphatic amines [43,64,66,220-224], aniline [79], imines [225], or pyrroles [226]. Strong nucleophiles can also lead to a dealkylation of methoxy-substituted carbene complexes (5 2 at the methyl group, [227]), in the same way as methyl esters can be cleaved by nucleophiles such as iodide. Carbon... 

Fig. 2.20. Reaction of heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes with nucleophilic and electrophilic tin derivatives.

Closely related to the ring-closing metathesis of enynes (Section 3.2.5.6), catalyzed by non-heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes, is the reaction of stoichiometric amounts of Fischer-type carbene complexes with enynes [266,308 -315] (for catalytic reactions, see [316]). In this reaction [2 + 2] cycloaddition of the carbene complex and the alkyne followed by [2 -t- 2] cycloreversion leads to the intermediate formation of a non-heteroatom-substituted, electrophilic carbene complex. This intermediate, unlike the corresponding nucleophilic carbene... 

Vinylketene complexes, generated by treatment of heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes with alkynes, can react intramolecularly with different nucleophiles to yield cyclic compounds (Figure 2.30, Table 2.20). Four- to ten-membered rings have... 

Non-heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes can also be generated by treatment of electrophilic transition metal complexes with ylides (e.g. diazoalkanes, phosphorus ylides, nucleophilic carbene complexes, etc. Section 3.1.3). Alkyl complexes with a leaving group in the a-position are formed as intermediates. These alkyl complexes can undergo spontaneous release of the leaving group to yield a carbene complex (Figure 3.2). 

Additional methods for preparing non-heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes include nucleophilic or electrophilic additions to carbyne complexes (Section 3.1.4), electrophilic additions to alkenyl or alkynyl complexes (Section 3.1.5), and the isomerization of alkyne or cyclopropene complexes (Section 3.1.6). 

Numerous carbene complexes have since been prepared by this method [1,52,60,499-503], even utilizing highly reactive diazoalkanes such as diazomethane [504], Because of their high nucleophilicity and reactivity, non-acceptor-substituted diazoalkanes can displace even strongly bound ligands, such as phosphines. Examples of such reactions are shown in Figure 3.20. 

Transition metal complexes which react with diazoalkanes to yield carbene complexes can be catalysts for diazodecomposition (see Section 4.1). In addition to the requirements mentioned above (free coordination site, electrophi-licity), transition metal complexes can catalyze the decomposition of diazoalkanes if the corresponding carbene complexes are capable of transferring the carbene fragment to a substrate with simultaneous regeneration of the original complex. Metal carbonyls of chromium, iron, cobalt, nickel, molybdenum, and tungsten all catalyze the decomposition of diazomethane [493]. Other related catalysts are (CO)5W=C(OMe)Ph [509], [Cp(CO)2Fe(THF)][BF4] [510,511], and (CO)5Cr(COD) [52,512]. These compounds are sufficiently electrophilic to catalyze the decomposition of weakly nucleophilic, acceptor-substituted diazoalkanes. 

Non-heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes are in principle accessible either by electrophilic or by nucleophilic addition to alkynyl or alkenyl complexes (Figure 3.26). 

As mentioned in Sections 3.1.6 and 4.1.3, cyclopropenes can also be suitable starting materials for the generation of carbene complexes. Cyclopropenone di-methylacetal [678] and 3-alkyl- or 3-aryl-disubstituted cyclopropenes [679] have been shown to react, upon catalysis by Ni(COD)2, with acceptor-substituted olefins to yield the products of formal, non-concerted vinylcarbene [2-1-1] cycloaddition (Table 3.6). It has been proposed that nucleophilic nickel carbene complexes are formed as intermediates. Similarly, bicyclo[1.1.0]butane also reacts with Ni(COD)2 to yield a nucleophilic homoallylcarbene nickel complex [680]. This intermediate is capable of cyclopropanating electron-poor alkenes (Table 3.6). 

The order of reactivity of these three catalysts towards alkenes (but also towards oxygen) is 1 > 3 > 2. As illustrated by the examples in Table 3.18, these catalysts tolerate a broad spectrum of functional groups. Highly substituted and donor- or acceptor-substituted olefins can also be suitable substrates for RCM. It is indeed surprising that acceptor-substituted alkenes can be metathesized. As discussed in Section 3.2.2.3 such electron-poor alkenes can also be cyclopropanated by nucleophilic carbene complexes [34,678] or even quench metathesis reactions [34]. This seems, however, not to be true for catalysts 1 or 2. 

The most frequently used ylides for carbene-complex generation are acceptor-substituted diazomethanes. As already mentioned in Section 3.1.3.1, non-acceptor-substituted diazoalkanes are strong C-nucleophiles, easy to convert into carbene complexes with a broad variety of transition metal complexes. Acceptor-substituted diazomethanes are, however, less nucleophilic (and more stable) than non-acceptor-substituted diazoalkanes, and require catalysts of higher electrophilicity to be efficiently decomposed. Not surprisingly, the very stable bis-acceptor-substituted diazomethanes can be converted into carbene complexes only with strongly electrophilic catalysts. This order of reactivity towards electrophilic transition metal complexes correlates with the reactivity of diazoalkanes towards other electrophiles, such as Brpnsted acids or acyl halides. 

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