Coordination number reductive elimination

Coordinatively unsaturated compounds can generally bind neutral or anionic nucleophiles. Such reactions are called additions. Oxidative additions are reactions that involve an increase of the formal oxidation state and the coordination number. Reductive eliminations are, in principle, opposite processes to oxidative additions. They lead to a reduction of the coordination sphere of the metal and to its formal oxidation state. 

Formally, the metal oxidation number x increases to x+2, while the coordination number n of ML, increases to n+2. If such oxidative addition reactions are intended to be the first step in a sequence of transformations, which eventually will lead to a functionalization reaction of C-X, then the oxidative addition product 2 should still be capable of coordinating further substrate molecules in order to initiate their insertion, subsequent reductive elimination, or the like [1], This is why 14 electron intermediates MLu (1) are of particular interest. In this case species 2 are 16 electron complexes themselves, and as such may still be reactive enough to bind another reaction partner. 

The familiar standard de carbonyl at ion mechanism ( 3, 5) involving a concerted oxidative-addition of aldehyde, CO migration (with subsequent elimination), and reductive-elimination of product, would seem with metalloporphyrins to require coordination numbers higher than six, and in this case Ru(IV) intermediates. Although this is plausible, the data overall strongly suggest a radical mechanism and Ru(III) intermediates. 

There are now a number of quite stable Pt(IV) alkyl hydride complexes known and the synthesis and characterization of many of these complexes were covered in a 2001 review on platinum(IV) hydride chemistry (69). These six-coordinate Pt(IV) complexes have one feature in common a ligand set wherein none of the ligands can easily dissociate from the metal. Thus it would appear that prevention of access to a five-coordinate Pt(IV) species contributes to the stability of Pt(IV) alkyl hydrides. The availability of Pt(IV) alkyl hydrides has recently allowed detailed studies of C-H reductive elimination from Pt(IV) to be carried out. These studies, as described below, also provide important insight into the mechanism of oxidative addition of C-H bonds to Pt(II). 

Another reaction type to be mentioned in this section deals with oxidative addition/reductive elimination. Such reactions not only involve significant bond formation/bond breakage, but also a change in the oxidation state and coordination number of the metal complex. These effects cause significant volume changes such that large... 

Probably the most common detachment step in late transition metal catalyzed processes is reductive elimination. In this transformation two groups, that are both attached to the same metal centre, will be released and form a covalent bond, with the concomitant formation of a metal whose formal oxidation state, coordination number and electron count are decreased by two. Figure 1-9 presents a general order of the ease of reductive elimination for the most common complexes. 

The product elimination step proceeds with cleavage of the catalyst-substrate bonds. This may occur by dissociation, solvolysis, or a coupling of substrate moieties to form the product. The last of these involves covalent bond formation within the product, and corresponds to the microscopic reverse of oxidative addition. Upon reductive elimination both the coordination number and formal oxidation state of the metal complex decrease. In most homogeneous catalytic processes, the product elimination step, while essential, is usually not rate determining. The larger kinetic barriers are more frequently encountered in substrate activation and/or transformation. 

Thermolysis of these complexes at 9°C produced ethylene, cyclobutane, and butenes. The ratio of the gaseous products was found to be a function of the coordination number of the complex, or intermediate. Thus three coordinate complexes favoured butene formation, while four coordinate complexes favoured reductive elimination to form cyclobutane, and five coordinate complexes produced ethylene as shown in Scheme 25.83... 

The elimination of a-hydrogen is not general and observed only with limited numbers of metal complexes. The elimination of a-hydrogen from the methyl group in the dimethylmetal complex 68 generates the metal hydride 69 and a carbene that coordinates to the metal. Liberation of methane by the reductive elimination generates the carbene complex 70. Formation of carbene complexes of Mo and Wis a key step in alkene metathesis. The a-elimination is similar to the 1,2-hydride shift observed in organic reactions. 

Each reaction type (oxidative addition, reductive elimination, etc.) was studied according to the electronic configuration (at this time only the even dn configurations have been considered), the coordination number, and the coordination geometry. The matrices that we have composed for the evaluation (Matrices 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 see also Section I,C), show the structure d"-ML for which the reaction is allowed or forbidden. We must note that, in most of the cases, the rules that we present derivefrom theoretical studies found in the literature and that exceptions certainly exist. Another difficulty in this reaction evaluation is the importance of the coordination geometry (15b), related to the spin state (low or high), the choice of which is particularly difficult. 

Copper(I) catalysis is very well established to promote intramolecular [2+2] photocycloaddition reactions of l,n-dienes (review [351]). The methodology recently enjoyed a number of applications [352-354], It is assumed that CuOTf, which is commonly applied as the catalyst, coordinates the diene and in this way mediates a preorganization. The Ghosh group recently reported a number of CuOTf-catalyzed photochemical [2+2] cycloaddition reactions, in which an organocopper radical complex was proposed as a cyclization intermediate (which should, however, have a formal Cu(II) oxidation state) (selected references [355-357]). A radical complex must, however, not be invoked, since the process may either proceed by a [2+2] photocycloaddition in the coordination sphere of copper without changing the oxidation state or according to a cycloisomerization/reductive elimination process. 

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