Nitrene-complex

In 1987, Nitta reported the formation of an unexpected vinylketene complex from the reaction of an azido-substituted cyclopropene with diiron nonacarbonyl.104 They had previously investigated the chemical behavior of the complexed nitrene intermediates that result from the reaction of organic azides and iron carbonyls113 and were interested in replicating the thermal isomerization of 3-azido-l,2,3-triphenylcyclopropene (163) into 4,5,6-triphenyl-l,2,3-triazine using a metal carbonyl-promoted re-... 

Reaction of Lewis Base with Nitrene or Metal Complexed Nitrene 173... 

In view of the chemistry of a metal carbene complex, it is reasonable to expect that nitrene or metal-complexed nitrene will similarly interact with Lewis base to generate ylide-like species, which then proceeds to undergo further transformations (Figure 7). 

Such metal-complexed nitrenes were also generated by the reaction of (tosyliminoio-do)benzene (106) with Mn(m)- or Fe(n)-tetraphenylporphyrin, 107, in a mimic of cytochrome P-450 but with a tosylimino group instead of an oxygen atom on the metals (108) [179]. It was able to functionalize cyclohexane solvent, by nitrogen insertion into a C-H bond to form 109. Furthermore, the metalloporphyrins also catalyzed an intramolecular nitrogen insertion converting 110 into 111 [180]. 

Addition to aromatic systems is probably the primary step in a number of more complex nitrene reactions such as the formation of azepines from carbethoxynitrene and benzene and a number of... 

While major advances in the area of C-H functionalization have been made with catalysts based on rare and expensive transition metals such as rhodium, palladium, ruthenium, and iridium [7], increasing interest in the sustainability aspect of catalysis has stimulated researchers toward the development of alternative catalysts based on naturally abundant first-row transition metals including cobalt [8]. As such, a growing number of cobalt-catalyzed C-H functionalization reactions, including those for heterocycle synthesis, have been reported over the last several years to date (early 2015) [9]. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of such recent advancements with classification according to the nature of the catalytically active cobalt species involved in the C-H activation event. Besides inner-sphere C-H activation reactions catalyzed by low-valent and high-valent cobalt complexes, nitrene and carbene C-H insertion reactions promoted by cobalt(II)-porphyrin metalloradical catalysts are also discussed. 

The porphyrin ligand can support oxidation states of iron other than II and III. [Fe(I)Por] complexes are obtained by electrochemical or chemical reduction of iron(II) or iron(III) porphyrins. The anionic complexes react with alkyl hahdes to afford alkyl—iron (III) porphyrin complexes. Iron(IV) porphyrins are formally present in the carbene, RR C—Fe(IV)Por p.-carbido, PorFe(IV)—Fe(IV)Por nitrene, RN—Fe(IV)Por and p.-nittido, PorFe(IV)... 

Jacobsen et al. have made a convincing argument that these types of reaction proceed by way of discrete copper-nitrene complexes, rather than by some sort of single-electron process (Scheme 4.16) [13c]. 

Reaction constants pF and pR with opposite signs (but only small differences in magnitude) were later found for dediazoniation in 1,2-dichloroethane (Nakazumi et al., 1987), in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (Ravenscroft and Zollinger, 1988), and with 18-crown-6 ether complexes of substituted benzenediazonium ions (Nakazumi et al., 1987). The dediazoniation of substituted phenylazides (forming nitrenes) also... 

Keywords Carbene Catalysis Complex Iron Nitrene... 

Iron-nitrene/imido complexes are proposed to be the reaction intermediates in nitrogen group transfer reactions. The nitrene group can be transferred to organic substrates. Aziridination and amination are the well-known nitrogen atom/group... 

Copper(I) complexes containing NHC-phenoxyimine 153 or NHC-phenoxyamine 154 were shown to be good catalyst systems for nitrene addition to alkenes 144 (Scheme 5.40) [45]. The catalyst systems showed to be highly efficient as only 1 mol% catalyst loading was required to afford aziridines 155 in moderate to good yields. 

Scheme 5.40 Nitrene addition to alkenes catalysed by NHC-Cu complex...

A first terminal imido complex of nickel (121) was prepared according to Equation (3).468 The synthesis goes via the Ni11 amido compound (122) and uses the steric bulk of the arylimido group for stabilization. The Ni11 center in (121) is planar and three-coordinate. Reaction of (121) with CO or benzyl isocyanide leads to formal nitrene transfer with formation of (124) and (125), respectively. Further reaction with CO liberates the isocyanate and carbodiimide (Equation (4)). 69... 

Though the intermediacy of nitrenes is likely in these reactions, the possibility of prior complexing of the sulphonyl azide with the solvent... 

As will be discussed later, it is possible a4> that the thermolysis involves a metal-nitrene complex whereas the photolysis involves the free nitrene. The product distribution is not affected by the presence of a photosensitizer, but since ferrocene itself is both an efficient triplet quencher as well as a sensitizer 26,27) jt is very difficult to probe the spin state of ferrocenyl nitrene at the moment of reaction. The cycli-zation appears to be a singlet reaction since the yield of 27 in benzene solution is essentially unaffected by oxygen or the presence of hydro-quinone a5>. 

Despite the volume of work concerned with metal-catalyzed decomposition of diazo compounds and carbenoid reactions 28>, relatively little work has been reported on the metal-catalyzed decomposition of sulphonyl azides. Some metal-aryl nitrene complexes have recently been isolated 29 31>. Nitro compounds have also been reduced to nitrene metal complexes with transition metal oxalates 32K... 

Copper catalyzes the decomposition of sulphonyl azides in benzene very slowly. When methanesulphonyl azide was boiled under reflux in benzene solution in the presence of an excess of freshly reduced copper powder, some decomposition occurred to give methanesulphonamide and azide was recovered 78>. Transition metal complexes have been found to exert a marked effect upon the yields of products and isomer ratios formed in the thermal decomposition of methanesulphonyl azide in methyl benzoate and in benzotrifluoride 36>. These results will be discussed in detail in the section on the properties of sulphonyl nitrenes and singlet and triplet behaviour. A sulphonyl nitrene-iron complex has recently been isolated 37> and more on this species will be reported soon. 

The success of this reaction was ascribed to the solubility of the chlorozinc intermediate, whereas other chloramine-T derivatives (e.g. the sodium salt) are insoluble. An alternative non-nitrene pathway was not eliminated from consideration. On the other hand, no aromatic substitution or addition, characteristic of a free sulphonyl nitrene (see below), took place on treatment of jV,lV-dichloromethanesulphonamides with zinc powder in benzene in the cold or on heating. The only product isolated was that of hydrogen-abstraction, methanesulphonamide 42>, which appears to be more characteristic of the behaviour of a sulphonyl nitrene-metal complex 36,37). Photolysis of iV.iV-dichloromethanesulphonamide, or dichloramine-B, or dichloramine-T in benzene solution led to the formation of some unsubstituted sulphonamide and some chlorobenzene but no product of addition of a nitrene to benzene 19>. 

A copper-sulphonyl nitrene complex has been postulated as an intermediate in the reaction of chloramine-T with DMSO and with dioxan 45>. In the absence of copper powder, only a small yield of sulphoximine (6%) was obtained in DMSO. Again, no sulphonylaniline or azepine... 

On the other hand, thermolysis of ferrocenylsulpkonyl azide (14) in aliphatic solvents may lead to the predominant formation of the amide (16) 17>. A 48.4% yield of (16) was obtained from the thermolysis in cyclohexane while an 85.45% yield of 16 was formed in cyclohexene. Photolysis of 14 in these solvents led to lower yields of sulphonamide 32.2% in cyclohexane, 28.2% in cyclohexene. This suggests again that a metal-nitrene complex is an intermediate in the thermolysis of 14 since hydrogen-abstraction appears to be an important made of reaction for such sulphonyl nitrene-metal complexes. Thus, benzenesulphonamide was the main product (37%) in the copper-catalyzed decomposition of the azide in cyclohexane, and the yield was not decreased (in fact, it increased to 49%) in the presence of hydroquinone 34>. On the other hand, no toluene-sulphonamide was reported from the reaction of dichloramine-T and zinc in cyclohexane. 

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