Carbyne complexes nucleophilic addition

In view of the similarities between the bonding models for carbene and carbyne complexes it is not surprising that similar patterns of reactivity should be observed for these compounds. Thus nucleophilic and electrophilic additions to the metal-carbon triple bond are anticipated under appropriate circumstances, and both orbital and electrostatic considerations will be expected to play a role. 

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. 

If a given vinylidene complex is not sufficiently electrophilic, protonation at Cp can promote nucleophilic addition at C by intermediate formation of an electrophilic carbyne complex [89] (Figure 2.9, Section 2.1.8). 

When imines are the nucleophiles used, the initially formed iminium intermediates can undergo intramolecular electrophilic alkylation of the other ligands (e.g. Entry 2, Table 2.10 see also [143]). In addition to this, carbyne complexes can also react with azides to give metallatriazoles [185,186] (Entry 6, Table 2.10). 

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). 

Closely related to the a-addition of nucleophiles is the P-deprotonation of electrophilic carbyne complexes. In many of the examples reported [143,530,531] the resulting vinylidene complexes could not be isolated but were generated in situ and either oxidized to yield stable carbene complexes [532] or used as intermediates for the preparation of other carbyne complexes [527]. Cationic carbyne complexes can be rather strong acids and undergo quick deprotonation to vinylidene complexes with weak bases [143]. An interesting example of the use of anionic vinylidene complexes as synthetic intermediates is sketched in Figure 3.24. 

Phosphines, as nucleophiles, add to many unsaturated substrates giving metal-lated ylides. Scheme 17 collects some representative examples of the addition of phosphines to carbyne complexes, giving (57) [132], to allenylidenes (58) [133], a-alkenyls (59) [134], or a-alkynyls (60) [135]. Moreover, reaction of phosphines with 7i-alkenes [136] and 71-aIkynes (61)-(64) [137-140] have also been reported. It is not possible to explain in depth each reaction, but the variety of resulting products provides an adequate perspective about the synthetic possibihties of this type of reactions. 

The molecular orbital analysis of the nucleophilic addition at the carbyne C atom infers the orbital control of the reaction since the C atom undergoing attack is the most negative one in the carbyne complex. [2 + 2] cycloadditions of [ReCp(CO)2(CPh)]+ with MeN=C(Ph)H, t-BuN=0, and ArN=NAr (Ar = aryl) but not with aUcenes or aUcynes, give the metallacycles. These reactions are driven by the nucleophilic attack of the lone pairs of the N atom at the electrophilic carbyne carbon atom. These metallacycles are... 

This chapter will focus on the nucleophilic addition reactions of transiton metal carbene and carbyne complexes with Grignard reagents. The synthesis and some general reactions of these carbene and carbyne complexes will be presented. A more detailed description of the chemistry of these complexes can be found in the literature [1]. This chapter, although not exhaustive, is descriptive of the prototypical nucleophilic addition reactions of metal-carbon (M-C) multiple bonds with Grignard reagents. 

In Chapter 8 we described how metal carbides (first mentioned in Section 6-1-4) could serve as precursors to carbyne complexes by way of electrophilic addition. Scheme 10.8 revisits a portion of Scheme 8.12, showing Os-carbide complex 72—with its nucleophilic Ccarbide atom—reacting with methyl triflate or tropylium ion to give alkylidynes 73 and 74, respectively. Comparable reactions occur with the corresponding Ru-carbide complex.87 This method may become more general after the synthesis of additional carbide complexes occurs. 

The direct conversion of carbyne complexes TpW( = CR)(CO)2 (R = Ph, C6H4Me-4) to cationic c/ -dicarbonyl -phosphinocarbene (metallaphosphacyclo-propene) complexes can be achieved by the addition of chlorodiorganophosphines in the presence of sodium tetraphenylborate or thallium hexafluorophosphate (Scheme 51)/ In the absence of these sodium salts, nucleophile (Cl )-induced carbonyl-carbene coupling affords neutral -phosphinoketene complexes. 

The bonding interactions of a carb)me ligand are essentially those of a metal carbene complex, but with an additional ir-bond (Figure 2.16). One orbital of cr-symmetry and two of iT-symmetry overlap with three metal orbitals of appropriate symmetry. When considered trianionic, all three orbitals of the ligand fragment contain two electrons. Theoretical studies of heteroatom-substituted or "Fischer-type" carbyne complexes - indicate that the HOMO predominantly consists of the metal fragment, and the LUMO consists of one of the TT -orbitals of the metal-carbon bond. This result explains the tendency of nucleophiles to attack the carbyne carbon in carbyne complexes, just as they attack the carbene carbon in Fischer carbene complexes. 

Many carbene complexes undergo nucleophilic attack at the carbene carbon. This chemistry is presented in more detail in Chapter 13 on metal-ligand multiple bonds. In brief, cationic carbene complexes tend to imdergo simple addition processes to generate neutral products (Equation 11.8), whereas neutral complexes can react by either addition (Equation 11.9) or by a sequence of addition and elimination reactions (Equation 11.10). Fischer has shown that the aminolysis of alkoxycarbene complexes occurs by initial attack at the carbene carbon by a mechanism similar to that for the aminolysis of organic esters. Although less studied than reactions of carbenes with nucleophiles, reactions of carbyne complexes with nucleophiles are also known, and these reactions generate carbene complexes. ... 

The pattern of chemical reactions observed for these compounds clearly sets them apart from "Fischer-type" carbyne complexes of GroupVI e.g., W(hCR)X(CO)4. Whereas the "Fischer-type" complexes typically react with nucleophiles at the carbyne carbon all of the reactions observed for the five coordinate mthenium and osmium complexes, including the cationic examples, are electrophilic additions to the MsC bond. The following sections deal individually with, protonation, addition of halides of the coinage metals, addition of chlorine and chalcogens, and finally an attempted nucleophilic addition where the nucleophile is directed to a remote site on the aryl ring of the carbyne substituent. 

Nonparametrized Fenske-Hall molecular orbital calculations on the carbyne complexes fra s-[CrX(CO)4(CR)] (X = Cl, Br, or I R = Me, Ph, or NEt2) support an earlier contention that nucleophilic additions to carbyne ligands are frontier orbital controlled rather than charge controlled. Thus, the only such complex to undergo nucleophilic addition to its carbyne carbon atom, namely, trans-[CrBr(CO)4(CC6H4Me-p)], is the only one whose LUMO corresponds to a Cr-carbyne ir-antibond. 

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