Carbenes complexes, intermolecular

Acyclic diene molecules are capable of undergoing intramolecular and intermolec-ular reactions in the presence of certain transition metal catalysts molybdenum alkylidene and ruthenium carbene complexes, for example [50, 51]. The intramolecular reaction, called ring-closing olefin metathesis (RCM), affords cyclic compounds, while the intermolecular reaction, called acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization, provides oligomers and polymers. Alteration of the dilution of the reaction mixture can to some extent control the intrinsic competition between RCM and ADMET. 

Non-heteroatom-stabilised Fischer carbene complexes also react with alkenes to give mixtures of olefin metathesis products and cyclopropane derivatives which are frequently the minor reaction products [19]. Furthermore, non-heteroatom-stabilised vinylcarbene complexes, generated in situ by reaction of an alkoxy- or aminocarbene complex with an alkyne, are able to react with different types of alkenes in an intramolecular or intermolecular process to produce bicyclic compounds containing a cyclopropane ring [20]. 

Intermolecular [4C+2S] cycloaddition reactions where the diene moiety is contained in the carbene complex are less frequent than the [4S+2C] cycloadditions summarised in the previous section. However, 2-butadienylcarbene complexes, generated by a [2+2]/cyclobutene ring opening sequence, undergo Diels-Alder reactions with typical dienophiles [34,35] (Scheme 59). Also, Wulff et al. have described the application of pyranylidene complexes, obtained by a [3+3] cycloaddition reaction (see Sect. 2.8.1), in the inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction with enol ethers and enamines [87a]. Later, this strategy was applied to the synthesis of steroid-like ring skeletons [87b] (Scheme 59). 

Aryl- and alkenylcarbene complexes are known to react with alkynes through a [3C+2S+1C0] cycloaddition reaction to produce benzannulated compounds. This reaction, known as the Dotz reaction , is widely reviewed in Chap. Chromium-Templated Benzannulation Reactions , p. 123 of this book. However, simple alkyl-substituted carbene complexes react with excess of an alkyne (or with diynes) to produce a different benzannulated product which incorporates in its structure two molecules of the alkyne, a carbon monoxide ligand and the carbene carbon [128]. As referred to before, this [2S+2SH-1C+1C0] cycloaddition reaction can be carried out with diyne derivatives, showing these reactions give better yields than the corresponding intermolecular version (Scheme 80). 

The convergent approach comprises, among other reaction steps, a regio-specific intermolecular benzannulation reaction between the alkyne 88 and the chromium carbene complex 89 for AB ring construction (Scheme 43). It is noteworthy that the regioselectivity of this reaction is attributed to the bulky TBDMS ether in the alkyne a-substituent, that dictates the incorporation of the large substituent ortho to the phenol. Another curiosity is the fact that the reaction failed to provide 90 in the absence of acetic anhydride. 

Interestingly, [Ee(F20-TPP)C(Ph)CO2Et] and [Fe(p2o-TPP)CPh2] can react with cyclohexene, THF, and cumene, leading to C-H insertion products (Table 3) [22]. The carbenoid insertion reactions were found to occur at allylic C-H bond of cyclohexene, benzylic C-H bond of cumene, and ot C-H bond of THF. This is the first example of isolated iron carbene complex to undergo intermolecular carbenoid insertion to saturated C-H bonds. 

The cyclic carbene complex shown in equation 3.4 was studied by X-ray diffraction [66], it shows a linear complex (angle C—Au—C 178.6(4)°) and the gold aryl bond distance is 1.993(10) A which is in accordance with such bonds in other known pentafluorophenyl complexes. The gold carbene carbon distance is 1.961(9) A, the dihedral angle between the planes formed by the two organic ligands is 5.35° and the shortest intermolecular Au—Au distance is 3.95 A. 

Pd(OAc)2 works well with strained double bonds as well as with styrene and its ring-substituted derivatives. Basic substituents cannot be tolerated, however, as the failures with 4-(dimethylamino)styrene, 4-vinylpyridine and 1 -vinylimidazole show. In contrast to Rh2(OAc)4, Pd(OAe)2 causes preferential cyclopropanation of the terminal or less hindered double bond in intermolecular competition experiments. These facts are in agreement with a mechanism in which olefin coordination to the metal is a determining factor but the reluctance or complete failure of Pd(II)-diene complexes to react with diazoesters sheds some doubt on the hypothesis of Pd-olefin-carbene complexes (see Sect. 11). 

With the long alkyl chain substitutions on the A-heterocyclic carbenes, lamella-structured silver(i) carbene complexes 27a and 27b (Figure 14) were isolated.74 It is interesting to note that the synthetic procedures for the two complexes are the same except for the use of different solvents of crystallization. The dinuclear 27a was obtained from recrystallization in dichloromethane- -hexane while the tetranuclear 27b was obtained from acetone. The structure of 27a could be interpreted as the dimeric form of [Ag(carbene)Br] bridged by intermolecular Ag-Br interactions. The Ag-G bond has a distance of 2.094(5) A. The tetranuclear 27b, on the other hand, could be regarded as two monocationic bis(carbene)silver(i) bridged by an [Ag2Br4]2 anion, with the presence of short Ag(cationic)-Ag(anionic) contact (3.0038(18) A) and comparable Ag-G bond distances (2.0945(5), 2.138(13) A). A related... 

Enyne metathesis is unique and interesting in synthetic organic chemistry. Since it is difficult to control intermolecular enyne metathesis, this reaction is used as intramolecular enyne metathesis. There are two types of enyne metathesis one is caused by [2+2] cycloaddition of a multiple bond and transition metal carbene complex, and the other is an oxidative cyclization reaction caused by low-valent transition metals. In these cases, the alkyli-dene part migrates from alkene to alkyne carbon. Thus, this reaction is called an alkylidene migration reaction or a skeletal reorganization reaction. Many cyclized products having a diene moiety were obtained using intramolecular enyne metathesis. Very recently, intermolecular enyne metathesis has been developed between alkyne and ethylene as novel diene synthesis. 

Intermolecular enyne metathesis has recently been developed using ethylene gas as the alkene [20]. The plan is shown in Scheme 10. In this reaction,benzyli-dene carbene complex 52b, which is commercially available [16b], reacts with ethylene to give ruthenacyclobutane 73. This then converts into methylene ruthenium complex 57, which is the real catalyst in this reaction. It reacts with the alkyne intermolecularly to produce ruthenacyclobutene 74, which is converted into vinyl ruthenium carbene complex 75. It must react with ethylene, not with the alkyne, to produce ruthenacyclobutane 76 via [2+2] cycloaddition. Then it gives diene 72, and methylene ruthenium complex 57 would be regenerated. If the methylene ruthenium complex 57 reacts with ethylene, ruthenacyclobutane 77 would be formed. However, this process is a so-called non-productive process, and it returns to ethylene and 57. The reaction was carried out in CH2Cl2 un-... 

Few examples of the preparation of six-membered heteroaromatic compounds using Fischer-type carbene complexes have been reported [224,251,381]. One intriguing pyridine synthesis, reported by de Meijere, is sketched in Figure 2.35. In this sequence a (2-aminovinyl)carbene complex first rearranges to yield a complexed 1 -azadiene, which undergoes intermolecular Diels-Alder reaction with phenylacetylene. Elimination of ethanol from the initially formed adduct leads to the final pyridine. 

Hence, cationic iron carbene complexes such as Cp(CO)2Fe =CHCHZR, in which Z is an electron-withdrawing group, might also be suitable for intermolecular cyclopropanation or C-H insertion reactions. The use of such carbene complexes in organic synthesis has not yet been thoroughly investigated, but could fruitfully supplement the chemistry of acceptor-substituted carbenes. 

Few examples of preparatively useful intermolecular C-H insertions of electrophilic carbene complexes have been reported. Because of the high reactivity of complexes capable of inserting into C-H bonds, the intermolecular reaction is limited to simple substrates (Table 4.9). From the results reported to date it seems that cycloalkanes and electron-rich heteroaromatics are suitable substrates for intermolecular alkylation by carbene complexes [1165]. The examples in Table 4.9 show that intermolecular C-H insertion enables highly convergent syntheses. Elaborate structures can be constructed in a single step from readily available starting materials. Enantioselective, intermolecular C-H insertions with simple cycloalkenes can be realized with up to 93% ee by use of enantiomerically pure rhodium(II) carboxylates [1093]. 

Synthetic Applications of Acceptor-Substituted Carbene Complexes 191 Table 4.9. Intermolecular C-H insertion reactions of electrophilic carbene complexes. 

Intermolecular N-H insertion of electrophilic carbene complexes has occasionally been used for the preparation of amino acid derivatives and other types of intermediates (Table 4.12) [956,1043,1194-1201]. 

Table 4.12. Intermolecular N-H insertions of electrophilic carbene complexes.

S-Alkylation of thiols by carbene complexes can be a useful approach to a-(alkylthio)- or a-(arylthio)ketones, although few examples of intramolecular [975,1193] or intermolecular [497,1043,1230-1233] S-H bond insertion reactions of electrophilic carbene complexes have been reported. Yields are sometimes low, probably because of the poisoning of the catalyst by the thiol. Examples are given in Table 4.15. 

Table 4.14. Preparation of ethers by intermolecular O-H insertion of electrophilic carbene complexes.

The intermolecular reaction of imines with acceptor-substituted carbene complexes generally leads to the formation of azomethine ylides. These can undergo several types of transformation, such as ring closure to aziridines [1242-1245], 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions [1133,1243,1246-1248], or different types of rearrangement (Figure 4.9). 

If chiral catalysts are used to generate the intermediate oxonium ylides, non-racemic C-O bond insertion products can be obtained [1265,1266]. Reactions of electrophilic carbene complexes with ethers can also lead to the formation of radical-derived products [1135,1259], an observation consistent with a homolysis-recombination mechanism for 1,2-alkyl shifts. Carbene C-H insertion and hydride abstraction can efficiently compete with oxonium ylide formation. Unlike free car-benes [1267,1268] acceptor-substituted carbene complexes react intermolecularly with aliphatic ethers, mainly yielding products resulting from C-H insertion into the oxygen-bound methylene groups [1071,1093]. 

Since the first experiments with chiral copper complexes reported by Nozaki [650] and Aratani [1027] many different catalysts have been examined, both for intermolecular and intramolecular cyclopropanations (for a review, see [1369]). Syntheses of natural products [955,1370] and drugs [1371] using asymmetric cyclopropanation with chiral electrophilic carbene complexes have been reported. A selection of useful catalysts is given in Figure 4.20 (see also Experimental Procedure 4.1.1). 

The preparation of cyclopropanes by intermolecular cyclopropanation with acceptor-substituted carbene complexes is one of the most important C-C-bond-forming reactions. Several reviews [995,1072-1074,1076,1077,1081] and monographs have appeared. In recent decades chemists have focused on stereoselective intermolecular cyclopropanations, and several useful catalyst have been developed for this purpose. Complexes which catalyze intermolecular cyclopropanations with high enantiose-lectivity include copper complexes [1025,1026,1028,1029,1031,1373,1398-1400], cobalt complexes [1033-1035], ruthenium porphyrin complexes [1041,1042,1230], C2-symmetric ruthenium complexes [948,1044,1045], and different types of rhodium complexes [955,998,999,1002-1004,1010,1062,1353,1401-1405], Particularly efficient catalysts for intermolecular cyclopropanation are C2-symmetric cop-per(I) complexes, as those shown in Figure 4.20. These complexes enable the formation of enantiomerically enriched cyclopropanes with enantiomeric excesses greater than 99%. Illustrative examples of intermolecular cyclopropanations are listed in Table 4.24. 

A variety of transition metal-carbene complexes have been prepared and characterized. None of these are known to efficiently effect intermolecular C-H insertion. An electrophilic iron carbcne complex can, however, participate in intramolecular C-H insertions (Section I.2.2.3.2.I.). More commonly, transition metal complexes are used to catalyze intramolecular C-H insertion starting with a diazo precursor. In these cases, the intermediate metal carbene complexes are not isolated. 

On the other hand, it has been shown that ruthenium carbene complexes lb and Ic are also effective for enyne metathesis. Intramolecular reaction of enyne metathesis is now a useful method for synthesizing cyclic compounds having a diene moiety, and intermolecular enyne metathesis has provided a method for synthesis of 1,3-dienes. 

Intermolecular trapping of carbene complexes (39) has also been reported. In this case, a second carbene (41) arising from a cyclopropyl shift from (39) can also be trapped to yield (42).39... 

Apart from the construction of phenanthrenes, carbene complexes have also been used for the synthesis of more extended polycyclic arenes. An unusual dimerization of chromium coordinated ortbo-ethynyl aryl carbenes results in the formation of chrysenes (Scheme 37) [81]. This unusual reaction course is presumably due to the rigid C2 bridge that links the carbene and alkyne moieties, and thus prevents a subsequent intramolecular alkyne insertion into the metal-carbene bond. Instead, a double intermolecular alkyne insertion favored by the weak chromium-alkyne bond is believed to occur forming a central ten-membered ring that may then rearrange to the fused arene system. For example, under typical benzannulation conditions, carbene complex 97 affords an equimolar mixture of chrysene 98a and its monochromium complex 98b. The peri-interactions between the former alkyne substituent (in the 5- and 11-positions) and the aryl hydrogen induce helicity in the chrysene skeleton. 

It was reported [53] that the LP influences the molecular and electronic distortions observed in [Cr(C6H6)(CO)3] and related carbine and carbene complexes. The mutual orientation of the first-neighboring CO groups in these species reflects more the balance between the molecular shape and the tendency of the molecules to lie as close as possible (close-packing principle), rather than an electronic requirement of the CO-CO intermolecular interactions. 

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