Catalytic cycle transfer hydrogenation

Magnetisation transfer experiments in and P nmr suggest that in the catalytic cycle of hydrogenation by Wilkinson s catalyst, [RhCl(PPhg)3], a cis-(PPha) Rh conformation occurs at key stages . Wilkinson s catalyst hydrogenates allyl alcohol with an activation energy of 19.7 kcal mol but under certain... 

Successive hydrogen transfers within 60, followed by coordination of olefin and then H2 (an unsaturate route), constitute the catalytic cycle, while isomerization is effected through HFe(CO)3(7r-allyl) formed from 59. Loss of H2 from 60 was also considered to be photoinduced, and several hydrides, including neutral and cationic dihydrides of iridium(III) (385, 450, 451), ruthenium(II) (452) and a bis(7j-cyclopentadienyltungsten) dihydride (453), have been shown to undergo such reductive elimination of hydrogen. Photoassisted oxidative addition of H2 has also been dem-... 

Molybdenum and tungsten carbonyl hydride complexes were shown (Eqs. (16), (17), (22), (23), (24) see Schemes 7.5 and 7.7) to function as hydride donors in the presence of acids. Tungsten dihydrides are capable of carrying out stoichiometric ionic hydrogenation of aldehydes and ketones (Eq. (28)). These stoichiometric reactions provided evidence that the proton and hydride transfer steps necessary for a catalytic cycle were viable, but closing of the cycle requires that the metal hydride bonds be regenerated from reaction with H2. 

Since the first use of catalyzed hydrogen transfer, speculations about, and studies on, the mechanism(s) involved have been extensively published. Especially in recent years, several investigations have been conducted to elucidate the reaction pathways, and with better analytical methods and computational chemistry the catalytic cycles of many systems have now been clarified. The mechanism of transfer hydrogenations depends on the metal used and on the substrate. Here, attention is focused on the mechanisms of hydrogen transfer reactions with the most frequently used catalysts. Two main mechanisms can be distinguished (i) a direct transfer mechanism by which a hydride is transferred directly from the donor to the acceptor molecule and (ii) an indirect mechanism by which the hydride is transferred from the donor to the acceptor molecule via a metal hydride intermediate (Scheme 20.3). 

The TEAF system can be used to reduce ketones, certain alkenes and imines. With regard to the latter substrate, during our studies it was realized that 5 2 TEAF in some solvents was sufficiently acidic to protonate the imine (p K, ca. 6 in water). Iminium salts are much more reactive than imines due to inductive effects (cf. the Stacker reaction), and it was thus considered likely that an iminium salt was being reduced to an ammonium salt [54]. This explains why imines are not reduced in the IPA system which is neutral, and not acidic. When an iminium salt was pre-prepared by mixing equal amounts of an imine and acid, and used in the IPA system, the iminium was reduced, albeit with lower rate and moderate enantioselectivity. Quaternary iminium salts were also reduced to tertiary amines. Nevertheless, as other kinetic studies have indicated a pre-equilibrium with imine, it is possible that the proton formally sits on the catalyst and the iminium is formed during the catalytic cycle. It is, of course, possible that the mechanism of imine transfer hydrogenation is different to that of ketone reduction, and a metal-coordinated imine may be involved [55]. 

First, solvent molecules, referred to as S in the catalyst precursor, are displaced by the olefinic substrate to form a chelated Rh complex in which the olefinic bond and the amide carbonyl oxygen interact with the Rh(I) center (rate constant k ). Hydrogen then oxidatively adds to the metal, forming the Rh(III) dihydride intermediate (rate constant kj). This is the rate-limiting step under normal conditions. One hydride on the metal is then transferred to the coordinated olefinic bond to form a five-membered chelated alkyl-Rh(III) intermediate (rate constant k3). Finally, reductive elimination of the product from the complex (rate constant k4) completes the catalytic cycle. 

In the case of hydrogenation using [Ru(BINAP)Cl2]n as the catalyst precursor, the reaction seems to occur by a monohydride mechanism as shown in Scheme 6-31. On exposure to hydrogen, RuC12 loses chloride to form RuHCl species A, which in turn reversibly forms the keto ester complex B. Hydride transfer occurs in B from the Ru center to the coordinated ketone to form C. The reaction of D with hydrogen completes the catalytic cycle.67... 

The solvent employed in asymmetric catalytic reactions may also have a dramatic influence on the reaction rate as well as the enantioselectivity, possibly because the solvent molecule is also involved in the catalytic cycle. Furthermore, the reaction temperature also has a profound influence on stereoselectivity. The goal of asymmetric hydrogenation or transfer hydrogenation studies is to find an optimal condition with a combination of chiral ligand, counterion, metal, solvent, hydrogen pressure, and reaction temperature under which the reactivity and the stereoselectivity of the reaction will be jointly maximized. 

Scheme 8.2 Catalytic cycle for the hydrogenation of (v, ligand dissociation step 2, oxidative addition of jj /i-hydridc transfer step 5, reductive elimination...

Fig. 5. Catalytic cycle of cytochrome P450. The substrate HR binds to the resting enzyme A to form intermediate B, which is reduced by one electron to form C and then reacts with dioxygen. The resulting ferric-peroxo intermediate D is reduced by one equivalent to form the transient oxyferrous intermediate E, which proceeds quickly to intermediate F with release of a molecule of water. F is designated Fe(V)=0 to indicate that it is oxidized by two equivalents greater than A and not to imply anything about the true oxidation state of the iron. Intermediate F then transfers an oxygen atom to the substrate to regenerate the resting enzyme. The peroxide shunt refers to the reaction of B with hydrogen peroxide to produce the intermediate F, which can then proceed to product formation.

Combination of the Hantzsch ester mediated transfer hydrogenation together with chlorine (116) or fluorine (117) electrophiles allows for the formal addition of HCl or HF aaoss a double bond in a catalytic asymmetric manner (Scheme 48) [178], Within this paper the reactions were further refined by the use of two cycle-specific secondary amines which effectively operated independently within the same reaction mixture. Impressively, this allowed access to either diastereoisomer of the product depending upon the absolute configuration of the catalyst used in the second step of the sequence. 

The toroidal pressure probe, introduced in 1989 by Rathke and coworkers [249, 250], has been modified by Woelk and coworkers [249, 251], who have used a toroid cavity NMR autoclave for high pressure PHIP NMR experiments. Figure 1.43 shows the PHIP spectrum of the [Rh(norbornadiene)(PPh3)2]PF6-catalyzed hydrogenation of 1,4-diphenylbutadiyne with 40 bar of 50% emiched para-H2 [252]. The spectrum from the same reaction at ambient H2 pressure is shown in the inset [253]. The two absorption/emission PHIP patterns in both spectra indicate that para-H2 is transferred pairwise during the catalytic cycle. 

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