Cobalt complexes racemisation

Inversion and Proton Exchange at Asymmetric Nitrogen Centres A number of metal complexes contain chiral N-H groups. One of the first examples to be studied was the cobalt(UI) complex containing coordinated sarcosine N-metl lglycine, (5.7). The complex has been resolved and its racemisation in baac solution studied. 

Discovered more than 70 years ago, hydroformylation is nowadays one of the most important reactions in the chemical industry because aldehydes can be transformed to many other products. In the enantioselective version, rhodium/ diphosphorus ligand complexes are the most important catalytic precursors, although cobalt and platinum complexes have also been widely used. For these systems, the active species are pentacoordinated trigonal-bipyramidal rhodium hydride complexes, [HRh(P-P)(CO)2]. In those complexes, the coordination mode of the bidentate ligand (equatorial-equatorial or equatorial-apical) is an important parameter to explain the outcome of the process. The most common substrates of enantioselective hydroformylation are styrenes followed by vinyl acetate and allyl cyanide. With these substrates, mixtures of the branched (b, chiral) and linear (1, not chiral) aldehydes are usually obtained. In addition, some hydrogenation of the double bond is often observed. Therefore, chemo- and regioselectivity are prerequisites to enan-tioselectivity and all of them must be controlled. An additional eomplieation is that chiral aldehydes are prone to racemise in the presenee of rhodium spe-... 

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