Nucleophiles combination with carbenes

A serendipitous discovery(6) that [Pt(cod)2] (cod cyclo-octa-1,5-diene) reacted with perfluoropropene to give the diplatinum complex [pt2 y-C(CF3)2 (cod)2], rather than the simple Ti2 adduct [Pt(CF2 CFCF3)(cod)], led to the idea(7) that mononuclear metal-carbene or -carbyne complexes would combine with nucleophilic and co-ordinatively unsaturated metal species (M") ... 

The third typical reaction of carbenes is combination with a nucleophile. Carbenes are electron-deficient species, so they combine with nucleophiles that have reactive lone pairs. Addition of a carbonyl O to a carbene gives a carbonyl ylide, a reactive compound useful for making furan rings by a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction (see Chapter 4). 

Etherification using a metal vinylidene has also been combined with G-G bond formation through the reaction of an alkynyl tungsten complex with benzaldehyde (Scheme 14). The addition of an internal alcohol to the incipient /3,/Udialkylvinylidene that is generated leads to dehydration and the formation of a Fischer-type alkylidene complex. Further reactions of this carbene with a range of nucleophiles have provided access to various furan derivatives.374,375... 

These highly reactive yet stable species are strong electrophiles of tetraphilic character, since nucleophiles may attack three different carbon atoms (a,/ ,a ) and iodine. In most reactions the first step is a Michael addition at fi-C with formation of an alkenyl zwitterionic intermediate (ylide) which normally eliminates iodoben-zene, generating an alkylidene carbene then, a 1,2-shift of the nucleophile ensues. The final result is its combination with the alkynyl moiety which behaves formally as an alkynyl cation. The initial adduct may react with an electrophile, notably a proton, in which case alkenyl iodonium salts are obtained also, cyclopentenes may be formed by intramolecular C-H 1,5-insertion from the alkylidenecarbenes ... 

A NHC-catalyzed aza-Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction (aza-MBH) following a standard nucleophile-mediated MBH mechanism has been disclosed very recently (He et al. 2007). Although combined with a preceding equilibrium for the reversible formation of imine-carbene adducts this reaction has similarities with phosphines and their organo-catalytic reactivity (Methot and Roush 2004). 

Hexafluoro-2-butyne and carbon disulflde react to give the tetrakis-(trifluoromethyl)tetrathiafulvalene quantitatively only in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid (70JA1412 73JA4379). The carbene initially formed is protonated the 1,3-dithiolium ion subsequently combines with the nucleophilic carbene to give the trifluoromethyl-substituted tetrathiafulvalene. 

The nucleophilic and electron-accepting properties of heterocyclic nucleophilic carbenes 36 were also used in combination with the electrophilic/nucleophilic character of acylsilanes via Brook rearrangement, leading to the invention of a sila-Stetter reaction by Scheidt and coworkers fScheme 6.24). The iminium structure in 37, generated by addition of the carbene catalyst 36 to the acylsilanes, promotes a Brook rearrangement to afford enol silyl ether 38. The alcohol additive present in the reaction causes desilylation to produce nucleophilic enaminol 39, which adds to a,p-unsaturated ketones to give 40. The formation of aryl ketone expels the carbene catalyst and produces 1,4-diketone 41. 

In 2006, Bode and coworkers reported the first enantioselective inverse-electron-demand hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of enals 130 with a,(i-unsaturated imines 131 under the catalysis of carbene precatalyst 123 in combination with Hiinig s base [59]. A broad range of substrates were well tolerated to afford synthetically important dihydropyridinone products 132 in good yields with remarkable enantioselec-tivities (Scheme 38.38). The need to introduce electron-withdrawing groups for enals only lies within the increased electrophilicity of these substrates, which enhances the rate of their reaction with the nucleophilic catalysts. The observed... 

The formation of ylides by the reaction of 4-nitrophenylchlorocarbene (generated by laser flash photolysis, LFP, of the parent diazirine) with ethers has been observed by UV-vis spectroscopy and was shown to be reversible. LFP combined with UV-vis spectroscopy has also enabled determination of the equilibrium constant for dihalocar-banion formation on reaction ofphenylchlorocarbene with halides. These experiments established a very fast equilibrium between the electrophilic carbene and the nucleophilic carbanion, which can be adjusted by careful control of the halide concentration. 

The stability of azole carbenes can be attributed to electronic factors which operate in both the Tran d CT-frameworks (92JA5530). In the TT-framework, electron donation into the carbene out-of-plane p-orbital by the electron-rich system moderates the typical electrophilic reactivity of carbenes. In the o-framework, additional stability for the carbene electron pair may be gained from the o-electron-withdrawal effects on the carbene center by the more electronegative nitrogens, which moderates the carbene nucleophilic reactivity. The combination of these a- and TT-effects serves to increase the singlet-triplet gap and stabilize the singlet carbene over the more reactive triplet state. For carbenes with bulky substituents (tert-butyl, 1-adamantyl, etc.) steric effects provide additional stabilization. 

As mentioned earlier, the carbene ligand in our complexes shows nucleophilic character with respect to the metal fragment. Therefore, we decided to combine it with an electrophilic carbene. For this purpose we treated pentacarbonyl[methoxy(phenyl)carbene]chromium(0) with phenyl(tri-chloromethyl) mercury (85). Compounds of this kind have been studied intensively by Seyferth et al. (86) and are known as a source of dihalogeno-carbenes. The carbene complex reacted with the carbenoid compound at... 

The nucleophilic character of triphenylphosphine and the electrophilic character of carbenes suggested to two groups of investigators that the two reagents should combine to form ylides of a new type to use in expansion of the Wittig reaction. Speziale et ai. found that triphenylphosphine on treatment in pentane with chloroform and potassium t-butoxide at 0° gives yellow triphenylphosphine dichloromethylene, which reacts with benzophenone to yield I,l-diphenyl-2,2-dichloroethylene (1). 

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