Cobalt hydride complexes

In contrast to the rhodium porphyrin hydride complexes, Rh(Por)H, which play a central role in many of the important developments in rhodium porphyrin chemistry, the corresponding cobalt porphyrin hydride complexes have been implicated as reaction intermediates in a variety of processes, but a stable, i.solable example has yet to be achieved. 

The corresponding reactions of transient Co(OEP)H with alkyl halides and epoxides in DMF has been proposed to proceed by an ionic rather than a radical mechanism, with loss of from Co(OEP)H to give [Co(TAP), and products arising from nucleophilic attack on the substrates. " " Overall, a general kinetic model for the reaction of cobalt porphyrins with alkenes under free radical conditions has been developed." Cobalt porphyrin hydride complexes are also important as intermediates in the cobalt porphyrin-catalyzed chain transfer polymerization of alkenes (see below). 

Although a cobalt-catalyzed intermolecular reductive aldol reaction (generation of cobalt enolates by hydrometal-lation of acrylic acid derivatives and subsequent reactions with carbonyl compounds) was first described in 1989, low diastereoselectivity has been problematic.3 6 However, the intramolecular version of this process was found to show high diastereoselectivity (Equation (37)).377,377a 378 A Co(i)-Co(m) catalytic cycle is suggested on the basis of deuterium-labeling studies and the chemistry of Co(ll) complexes (Scheme 81). Cobalt(m) hydride 182, which is... 

A mechanism was proposed in which entry into the catalytic cycle is achieved via Et2AlCl-mediated cobalt hydride generation. Diene hydrometallation affords the cobalt-complexed -jr-allyl A-5, which inserts the tethered alkene to furnish intermediate B-4. Elimination of LnCoOBn provides the cyclization product. Reduction of LnCoOBn by Et2AlCl regenerates cobalt hydride to complete the catalytic cycle (Scheme 17). 

Alkali metal 1-methyl- and 1-phenyl-borinates are also available from bis(borinato)cobalt complexes (see below) on treatment with sodium or potassium cyanide in an aprotic solvent like acetonitrile. Cobalt cyanide precipitates and the alkali borinate remains in solution. After addition of thallium(I) chloride to some complexes, thallium 1-methyl- or 1-phenyl-borinate could be isolated as pale yellow solids, the only main group borinates isolated hitherto. They are insoluble in most organic solvents but readily soluble in pyridine and DMSO. The solids are stable on treatment with water and aqueous potassium hydride, but are decomposed by acids <78JOM(153)265). 

Co(OAc)2 in the presence of sodium hydride and a sodium alkoxide has been used to catalyze the carbonylation of aryl bromides, giving mixtures of carboxylic acids and esters, again at normal pressure. When amines were present, amides were formed. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the nature of the cobalt complexes involved. 

Several recent examples of this technique are outlined in Scheme 70.l99 20li20S 206 The starting cobalt complexes are highly colored, air stable compounds that require no special precautions in handling. The process is relatively cost effective most cobalt precursors are less expensive per mole than tributyltin hydride. The reactions are conducted by visible light irradiation in a variety of solvents and can often be followed by color changes characteristic of the different oxidation states of cobalt. A disadvantage is that... 

The hydroformylation of conjugated dienes with unmodified cobalt catalysts is slow, since the insertion reaction of the diene generates an tj3-cobalt complex by hydride addition at a terminal carbon (equation 10).5 The stable -cobalt complex does not undergo facile CO insertion. Low yields of a mixture of n- and iso-valeraldehyde are obtained. The use of phosphine-modified rhodium catalysts gives a complex mixture of Cs monoaldehydes (58%) and C6 dialdehydes (42%). A mixture of mono- and di-aldehydes are also obtained from 1,3- and 1,4-cyclohexadienes with a modified rhodium catalyst (equation ll).29 The 3-cyclohexenecarbaldehyde, an intermediate in the hydrocarbonylation of both 1,3- and 1,4-cyclo-hexadiene, is converted in 73% yield, to the same mixture of dialdehydes (cis.trans = 35 65) as is produced from either diene. 

The metal carboxylate insertion mechanism has also been demonstrated in the dicobaltoctacarbonyl-catalyzed carbomethoxylation of butadiene to methyl 3-pentenoate.66,72 The reaction of independently synthesized cobalt-carboxylate complex (19) with butadiene (Scheme 8) produced ii3-cobalt complex (20) via the insertion reaction. Reaction of (20) with cobalt hydride gives the product. The pyridine-CO catalyst promotes the reaction of methanol with dicobalt octacarbonyl to give (19) and HCo(CO)4. 

The conditions under which cobalt hydrocarbonyl was reacted with olefin were also found to affect the distribution of products and the extent of isomerization of excess olefin (62, 73, 147). At low temperatures (0° C) under carbon monoxide (1 atm) very little isomerization of excess 1-pentene occurred and the main product was the terminal aldehyde. Under nitrogen or under carbon monoxide at 25° C, extensive olefin isomerization occurred and the branched aldehyde was mainly produced. The olefin isomerization is most satisfactorily accounted for by an equilibrium between alkylcobalt and olefin-hydride cobalt complexes [Eqs. (9) and (10)]. The carbon monoxide inhibition is most easily explained if the isomerization proceeds via the tricarbonyls rather than tetracarbonyls. This also explains why ethylcobalt tetracarbonyl is not in equilibrium with hydrocarbonyl and ethylene under conditions where the isomerization is rapid (62, 73). 

The mechanism of the cobalt-catalyzed hydrofunctionalizations can be rationalized as follows. Common to all protocols is the generation of a cobalt(III) hydride complex 365C from a cobalt(II) precursor 365 (Fig. 84). A major difference lies in the generation of 365C. In the presence of oxygen (entries 1-14), the reaction starts most likely by oxidation of 365 to Co(III) peroxide complexes 365A... 

The cobalt complexes described here, together with the triethyl phosphite analog,6-8 are the only examples of simple cobalt phosphite hydride complexes reported to date and were the first examples of metal hydrides stabilized by phosphite ligands. 

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