Catalysts with phosphorus—hydrogen bond

Reactions with alkynes may lead to the formation of cyclized products. The reaction of iodobenzenes with two equivalents of an alkyne has been shown to give naphthalene derivatives in the presence of cobalt catalyst with a manganese reduc-tant. The process, shown in Scheme 15, is thought to involve oxidative addition of the aryliodide to cobalt followed by double alkyne insertion. The cobalt-catalysed annulation step probably involves an pathway. The cyclopentadienyl-rhodium-catalysed annulation of benzoic acids with alkynes has been used to form isocoumarin derivatives, such as (126). The process is thought to involve cyclorhodation at the ortho-position of a rhodium benzoate intermediate, followed by alkyne insertion to form a seven-membered rhodacycle and reductive elimination The silver-catalysed annulations of diphenylphosphine oxides with alkynes proceed in the absence of rhodium. Benzophosphole oxides such as (127), formed with diphenylethyne, are produced. Here, the proposed mechanism involves homolytic cleavage of the phosphorus-hydrogen bond to give a radical which can add to the alkyne and subsequently cyclize. ... 

Effects of phosphorus have also been proposed from different points of view. First, phosphorus may decrease the polarization of the Mo—S bond and therefore increase its covalent character. Since molybdenum-based catalysts with highly covalent Mo —S bonds are supposed to have high HDS activities, phosphorus can thus improve HDS activity (84). Second, the presence of phosphorus increases the formation of octahedral molybdenum, cobalt, and nickel oxo-species which could be the precursors of the catalyti-cally active phase (38,88). Finally, phosphorus strongly promotes hydrogen activation in MoP/Al catalysts (59), which could be beneficial for all the hydrotreating reactions. 

Further studies on 1,3-dipolar addition reactions of diazophosphonates have been recorded,122 and work on 2-diazo-l-hydroxyalkylphosphonates also continues.123 The ester (155 R = H) reacts with esters of acetylenedicarboxylic acid without liberation of nitrogen to give stereoisomeric C-phosphorylated pyrazolines, which can be decomposed with both phosphorus-carbon and carbon-carbon bond fission, affording mixtures containing dimethyl acetylphosphonate, dimethyl hydrogen phosphonate, and tri(alkoxycarbonyl)pyrazolines. In the reaction between the same diazophosphonate and diazomethane, the latter conceivably acts as a basic catalyst for proton transfer in a series of steps which includes phosphonate-phosphate isomerization. The importance of a labile proton is demonstrated by the fact that the ester (155 R = Me) does not react in the manner described above. 

The catalyst is a cationic complex of rhodium with another diphosphine, DIPAMP. DIPAMP s chirality resides in the two stereogcnic phosphorus atoms unlike amines, phosphines are configurationally stable, rather like sulfoxides (which we will discuss in the next chapter). The catalyst imposes chirality on the hydrogenation by coordinating to both the amide group and the double bond of the substrate. Two diastereoisomeric complexes result, since the chiral catalyst can coordinate to either of the enantiotopic faces of the double bond. 

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