Carbenes metal-carbene intermediates

A transmetalation of the styrylcarbene chromium complex 62 in the presence of stoichiometric amounts of [Ni(cod)2] to give the nickel carbene intermediate 63 was applied to the synthesis of Cr(CO)3-coordinated cycloheptatriene 64 upon reaction with terminal alkynes [57] (Scheme 37). The formation of pen-tacarbonyl(acetonitrile)chromium is expected to facilitate the metal exchange. 

Abstract The dirhodium(II) core is a template onto which both achiral and chiral ligands are placed so that four exist in a paddle wheel fashion around the core. The resulting structures are effective electrophilic catalysts for diazo decomposition in reactions that involve metal carbene intermediates. High selectivities are achieved in transformations ranging from addition to insertion and association. The syntheses of natural products and compounds of biological interest have employed these catalysts and methods with increasing frequency. 

The catalysts are metal-carbene complexes that react with the alkene to form a metal-locyclobutane intermediate.290 If the metallocyclobutane breaks down in the alternative path from its formation, an exchange of the double-bond components occurs. 

The cis-trans isomerization of alkenyl ligands in transition metal alkenyl compounds is proposed to occur via zwitterionic carbene intermediates.46 According to this, the low contribution of the form b to the metal-dienyl bond in Os (Z)-CH=CHC(Me)=CH2 K1-0C(0)Me (C0)2(P,Pr3)2 could explain why this compound does not evolve into its (if )-isomer. 

The reason for the different behavior of dienes like 41 and monoenes 37 or 42 is not yet established. It is hard to believe that simple steric factors should make up for the different orientation of the olefin that approaches a metal carbene intermediate. More likely is stereochemical control by an ylide-type interaction between the halogen atom of the (sterically more flexible) monoenes 37 or 42 and the electrophilic metal carbene. 

A rhodium-catalyzed intramolecular C-H functionalization has been employed for the synthesis of bicyclic imidazoles. The alkene acts as an anchor to the metal, directing the C-H functionalization process, which involves the formation of an Rh(l) carbene intermediate (Equation (118)).107... 

Certain transition metal complexes catalyze the decomposition of diazo compounds. The metal-bonded carbene intermediates behave differently from the free species generated via photolysis or thermolysis of the corresponding carbene precursor. The first catalytic asymmetric cyclopropanation reaction was reported in 1966 when Nozaki et al.93 showed that the cyclopropane compound trans- 182 was obtained as the major product from the cyclopropanation of styrene with diazoacetate with an ee value of 6% (Scheme 5-56). This reaction was effected by a copper(II) complex 181 that bears a salicyladimine ligand. 

If cyclopentene would react pair-wise with 2-pentene, only one product would form, namely 2,7-decadiene, and a similar result for cyclodimers etc. of cyclopentene. If somehow, the alkylidene species would be transferred one by one, we would obtain a mixture of 2,7-nonadiene, 2,7-decadiene, and 2,7-undecadiene in a 1 2 1 ratio. The latter turned out to be the case, which led the authors to propose the participation of metal-carbene (metal alkylidene) intermediates [6], Via these intermediates the alkylidene parts of the alkenes are transferred one by one to an alkene. The mechanism is depicted in Figure 16.4. In the first step the reaction of two alkylidene precursors (ethylidene -bottom- and propylidene -top) with cyclopentene is shown. In the second step the orientation of the next 2-pentene determines whether nonadiene, decadiene or undecadiene is formed. It is clear that this leads to a statistical mixture, all rates being exactly equal, which need not be the case. Sometimes the results are indeed not the statistical mixture as some combinations of metal carbene complex and reacting alkene may be preferred, but it is still believed that a metal-carbene mechanism is involved. Deuterium labelling of alkenes by Gmbbs instead of differently substituted alkenes led to the same result as the experiments with the use of 2-pentene [7],... 

The expected intermediate for the metathesis reaction of a metal alkylidene complex and an alkene is a metallacyclobutane complex. Grubbs studied titanium complexes and he found that biscyclopentadienyl-titanium complexes are active as metathesis catalysts, the stable resting state of the catalyst is a titanacyclobutane, rather than a titanium alkylidene complex [15], A variety of metathesis reactions are catalysed by the complex shown in Figure 16.8, although the activity is moderate. Kinetic and labelling studies were used to demonstrate that this reaction proceeds through the carbene intermediate. 

A cycloaddition process between the Rh=C bond of the allenylidene derivative 38 and the C=C bond of the terminal alkyne has been evoked in the formation of the zwitterionic 71-aUyl-allenyl complexes 81 (Scheme 28), the initially formed metaUacyclobutenes 80 evolving into 81 by formation of carbene intermediate [RhCl(P/-Pr3)2(=CHCR=C=C=CPh2)] (R = Ph, p-MeC6H4, SiMe3) and subsequent migration of one of the phosphine ligands from the metal to the carbene carbon atom [205]. 

In the case of ethane, this mechanism cannot occur since the resulting metal-ethyl intermediate does not display any alkyl group in the P-position. Consequently, with tantalum hydride(s), 3, which cleave ethane, another process must take place, involving only one carbon atom at a time. Among various reasonable possibilities, we assume a carbene deinsertion from a tantalum-ethyl species because the reverse step is known in organometallic chemistry (Scheme 3.4) [22]. Note that this reverse step has been postulated as the key step in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis [23]. 

The mechanism of the catalytic metathesis reaction proceeds via reaction of the olefin substrate with a metal carbene intermediate, which may be generated in situ... 

A novel route to 2,3-dihydrothiophenes involved a titanocene-promoted carbene formation and subsequenct intramolecular cyclization onto a thiol ester <99SL1029>. Treatment of thioacetal 9 with the low-valent titanium complex 10 gave 2,3-dihydrothiophene 12 by intramolecular olefination of the thiol ester of titanium-carbene intermediate 11. Another metal-mediated cyclization onto the thiophene ring system involved the palladium-catalyzed cyclization of 1,6-diynes <99T485>. For example, treatment of thioether 1,6-diyne 13 with Pdlj in the presence of CO and Oj in methanol followed by treatment with base gave 14. 

Ethers, sulfides, amines, carbonyl compounds, and imines are among the frequently encountered Lewis bases in the ylide formation from such metal carbene complex. The metal carbene in the ylide formation can be divided into stable Fisher carbene complex and unstable reactive metal carbene intermediates. The reaction of the former is thus stoichiometric and the latter is usually a transition metal complex-catalyzed reaction of a-diazocarbonyl compounds. The decomposition of a-diazocarbonyl compounds with catalytic transition metal complex has been the most widely used approach to generate reactive metal carbenes. For compressive reviews, see Refs 1,1a. 

The carbonyl ylide generated from metal carbene can also add to C=0 or C=N bonds. The [2 + 3]-cycloaddition of carbonyl ylide with G=0 bond has been used by Hodgson and co-workers in their study toward the synthesis of zaragozic acid as shown in Scheme n 27a,27d Recently, a three-component reaction approach to syn-a-hydroxy-f3-amino ester based on the trapping of the carbonyl ylide by imine has been reported.The reaction of carbonyl ylide with aldehyde or ketone generally gives l,3-dioxolanes. Hu and co-workers have reported a remarkable chemoselective Rh2(OAc)4-catalyzed reaction of phenyl diazoacetate with a mixture of electron-rich and electron-deficient aryl aldehydes. The Rh(ii) carbene intermediate reacts selectively with electron-rich aldehyde 95 to give a carbonyl ylide, which was chemospecifically trapped by the electron-deficient aldehyde 96 to afford 1,3-dioxolane in a one-pot reaction (Equation (12)). 

Certain transition metal complexes catalyze the decomposition of diazo compounds, where the metal-bound carbene intermediates behave differently from the free species generated by their photolysis or thermolysis. 

Among transition-metal compounds that are effective for metal carbene transformations, those of Cu and Rh have received the most attention [7-10]. Cu catalysis for reactions of diazo compounds with olefins has been known for more than 90 years [11], but the first report of Rh catalysis, in the form of dirhodium(II) tetraacetate, has been recent [12], Although metal carbene intermediates with catalytically active Cu or Rh compounds have not yet been observed, those... 

Two resonance-contributing structures (3a and 3b), in the formalism of ylide structures, can be used to describe metal carbene intermediates. The highly electrophilic character of those derived from Cu and Rh catalysts suggests that the contribution from the metal-stabilized carbocation 3b is important in the overall evaluation of the reactivities and selectivities of these metal carbene intermediates. Emphasis on the metal carbene structure 3a has led to the subsequently discounted proposal that cyclopropane formation from reactions with alkenes occurs through the intervention of a metallocyclobutane intermediate [18]. The metal-stabilized carbocation structure 3b is consistent with the cyclopropanation mechanism in which LnM dissociates from the carbene as bond-formation occurs between the carbene and the reacting alkene (Eq. 5.4) [7,15]. 

Rh(II) carboxylates, especially Rh2(OAc)4> have emerged as the most generally effective catalysts for metal carbene transformations [7-10] and thus interest continues in the design and development of dirhodium(II) complexes that possess chiral51igands. They are structurally well-defined, with D2h symmetry [51] and axial coordination sites at which carbene formation occurs in reactions with diazo compounds. With chiral dirhodium(II) carboxylates the asymmetric center is located relatively far from the carbene center in the metal carbene intermediate. The first of these to be reported with applications to cyclopropanation reactions was developed by Brunner [52], who prepared 13 chiral dirhodium(II) tetrakis(car-boxylate) derivatives (16) from enantiomerically pure carboxylic acids RlR2R3CC OOH with substituents that were varied from H, Me, and Ph to OH, NHAc, and CF3. However, reactions performed between ethyl diazoacetate and styrene yielded cyclopropane products whose enantiopurities were less than 12% ee, a situation analogous to that encountered by Nozaki [2] in the first applications of chiral Schiff base-Cu(II) catalysts. 

The extensive data accumulated by Nakamura and Otsuka, although interpreted by them as being due to the intervention of metal carbene and metallocyclobutane intermediates, can also be rationalized by an alternative mechanism in which coordination of the chiral Co(II) catalyst with the alkene activates the alkene for electrophilic addition to the diazo compound (Scheme 5.4). Subsequent ring closure can be envisioned to occur via a diazonium ion intermediate, without involving at any stage a metal carbene intermediate. 

Enantiocontrol is high throughout, but diastereocontrol is markedly dependent on the structure of the ligand, that is, the ligand providing the most restrictive cavity is the one that influences the conformational equilibrium of the metal carbene intermediate (Scheme 5.6). 

A review has appeared on the synthesis of enantiomerically enriched aziridines by the addition of nitrenes to alkenes and of carbenes to imines.45 A study of the metal-catalysed aziridination of imines by ethyl diazoacetate found that mam group complexes, early and late transition metal complexes, and rare-earth metal complexes can catalyse the reaction.46 The proposed mechanism did not involve carbene intermediates, the role of the metal being as a Lewis acid to complex the imine lone pah. Ruthenium porphyrins were found to be efficient catalysts for the cyclopropana-tion of styrenes 47 High diastereoselectivities in favour of the //-product were seen but the use of chiral porphyrins gave only low ees. 

Transition-metal catalysis, especially by copper, rhodium, palladium and ruthenium compounds, is another approved method for the decomposition of diazo compounds. It is now generally accepted that short-lived metal-carbene intermediates are or may be involved in many of the associated transformations28. Nevertheless, these catalytic carbene transfer reactions will be fully covered in this chapter because of the close similarity in reaction modes of electrophilic carbenes and the presumed electrophilic metal-carbene complexes. 

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