Cobalt electrophilic addition with

Transition metal complexes which react with diazoalkanes to yield carbene complexes can be catalysts for diazodecomposition (see Section 4.1). In addition to the requirements mentioned above (free coordination site, electrophi-licity), transition metal complexes can catalyze the decomposition of diazoalkanes if the corresponding carbene complexes are capable of transferring the carbene fragment to a substrate with simultaneous regeneration of the original complex. Metal carbonyls of chromium, iron, cobalt, nickel, molybdenum, and tungsten all catalyze the decomposition of diazomethane [493]. Other related catalysts are (CO)5W=C(OMe)Ph [509], [Cp(CO)2Fe(THF)][BF4] [510,511], and (CO)5Cr(COD) [52,512]. These compounds are sufficiently electrophilic to catalyze the decomposition of weakly nucleophilic, acceptor-substituted diazoalkanes. 

Dioximato-cobalt(II) catalysts are unusual in their ability to catalyze cyclopropanation reactions that occur with conjugated olefins (e.g., styrene, 1,3-butadiene, and 1-phenyl-1,3-butadiene) and, also, certain a, 3-unsaturated esters (e.g., methyl a-phenylacrylate, Eq. 5.13), but not with simple olefins and vinyl ethers. In this regard they do not behave like metal carbenes formed with Cu or Rh catalysts that are characteristically electrophilic in their reactions towards alkenes (vinyl ethers > dienes > simple olefins a,p-unsaturated esters) [7], and this divergence has not been adequately explained. However, despite their ability to attain high enantioselectivities in cyclopropanation reactions with ethyl diazoacetate and other diazo esters, no additional details concerning these Co(II) catalysts have been published since the initial reports by Nakamura and Otsuka. 

Vanhoye and coworkers [402] synthesized aldehydes by using the electrogenerated radical anion of iron pentacarbonyl to reduce iodoethane and benzyl bromide in the presence of carbon monoxide. Esters can be prepared catalytically from alkyl halides and alcohols in the presence of iron pentacarbonyl [403]. Yoshida and coworkers reduced mixtures of organic halides and iron pentacarbonyl and then introduced an electrophile to obtain carbonyl compounds [404] and converted alkyl halides into aldehydes by using iron pentacarbonyl as a catalyst [405,406]. Finally, a review by Torii [407] provides references to additional papers that deal with catalytic processes involving complexes of nickel, cobalt, iron, palladium, rhodium, platinum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, manganese, rhenium, tin, lead, zinc, mercury, and titanium. 

One final report of alkane activation has been reported by Moiseev. The mechanism of the reaction was not investigated, but this system might be classified as an electrophilic activation of methane, either of the Shilov type or of the concerted four-center type (Fig. lc) where X=triflate. Reaction of methane with cobalt(III)triflate in triflic acid solution leads to the formation of methyltriflate in nearly stoichiometric quantities (90% based on Co) (Eq. 18). Carbon dioxide was also observed, but not quantified. Addition of 02 led to catalysis (four turnovers) [79]. 

The expected order for electrophilic attack by OH on co-ordinated and unco-ordinated pyridine derivatives is py>[Co(NH3)spy] +>Hpy+. For pyridine and isonicotinamide (ina) this order is observed and similarities in the spectra of the unstable addition products suggest that OH attacks at the same place in both bound and unbound ligands. With nicotinamide (na), reaction of the cobalt(iii) complex is faster (2.1 x 10 1 moh s at 22 C) and produces a transient spectrum which is red-shifted compared with that of the unbound ring adduct. It is suggested that in this case attack occurs not on the aromatic system but on an amide group. This behaviour may explain why the europium(ii) reduction of [Co(NH3)5(ina)] + is autocatalytic whereas the corresponding reduction of the nicotinamide complex is not. In the pulse radiolysis studies, the transient intermediate complexes decay by a second-order pathway with rate constants 1.3 x 10, 3.0 x 10 , and 6.0 x 10 1 mol for [CofNHa) sPy] , [Co(NH3) s(na)] +, and [Co(NH3)5(ina)] +respectively... 

In 2004, we reported the Cobalt-catalyzed hydrohydrazination of olefins with di-ferf-butyl azodicarboxylate (5) and phenylsilane (Scheme 4.1). Our approach was based on a stepwise introduction of a hydride and an electrophilic nitrogen source, instead of the more classical approach based on electrophilic activation of the olefin followed by addition of a hydrazine nucleophile. This solution to override the inherently low reactivity of aUcenes was first introduced by Mukaiyama for the related Cobalt-catalyzed hydroperoxidation reaction. The introduction of new Cobalt-catalyst 4 was the key for an efficient hydrohydrazination reaction, as the Cobalt-complexes with acetylacetonate-derived ligands used by Mukaiyama promoted direct reduction of the azodicarboxylate. 

Carbon dioxide is a linear molecule in which the oxygen atoms are weak Lewis (and Br0nsted) bases and the carbon is electrophilic. Reactions of carbon dioxide are dominated by nucleophilic attacks at the carbon, which result in bending of the O—C—O angle to about 120°. Figure 5.3 illustrates four very different nucleophilic reactions hydroxide attack on CO2 to form bicarbonate the initial addition of ammonia to CO2, which ultimately produces urea the binding of CO2 to a macrocyclic cobalt(I) complex, which catalyzes CO2 reduction and the addition of an electron to CO2 to yield the carbon dioxide radical ion. The first three also exemplify the reactivity of CO2 with respect to nucleophilic attack on the carbon. 

The mechanism of the Nicholas reaction is best described as an SnI process. Protonation of the alcohol in 4 followed by loss of water from cation 8 yields cobalt-stabilized carbocation 5. Friedel-Crafts reaction of this electrophile with anisole provides resonance-stabilized carbocation 9 which, upon removal of a proton, furnishes the substitution product 6. In addition to electron rich aromatics like anisole, a variety of neutral carbo- and heterocyclic nucleophiles react successfully with the carbocation... 

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