Electron-rich metals

These findings have stimulated enormously the search for intermolecular activation of C-H bonds, in particular those of unsubstituted arenes and alkanes. In 1982 Bergman [2] and Graham [3] reported on the reaction of well-defined complexes with alkanes and arenes in a controlled manner. It was realised that the oxidative addition of alkanes to electron-rich metal complexes could be thermodynamically forbidden as the loss of a ligand and rupture of the C-H bond might be as much as 480 kl.mol, and the gain in M-H and M-C 

The first reports on c-alkane metal complexes date back to the 1970s, the work of Perutz and Turner on photochemically generated unsaturated metal carbonyls of Group 6 [4], which is well before the C-H oxidative addition studies of alkanes. The enthalpy gain of formation of c-alkane metal complexes 

The general phenomenon of a primary kinetic isotope effect is caused by the higher zero-point vibration energy of a C-H bond compared to a C-D bond. If in the transition state where this bond is being broken the intermediate is linear (C-H-X), the energies of the deuterio and protio species are equal and 

There is ample evidence that the reductive elimination of alkanes (and the reverse) is a not single-step process, but involves a o-alkane complex as the intermediate. Thus, looking at the kinetics, reductive elimination and oxidative addition do not correspond to the elementary steps. These terms were introduced at a point in time when o-alkane complexes were unknown, and therefore new terms have been introduced by Jones to describe the mechanism and the kinetics of the reaction [5], The reaction of the o-alkane complex to the hydride-alkyl metal complex is called reductive cleavage and its reverse is called oxidative coupling. The second part of the scheme involves the association of alkane and metal and the dissociation of the o-alkane complex to unsaturated metal and free alkane. The intermediacy of o-alkane complexes can be seen for instance from the intramolecular exchange of isotopes in D-M-CH3 to the more stable H-M-CH2D prior to loss of CH3D. 

Several catalytic processes are known, see below, but it is clear that the compatibility of the above chemistry with functionalisation is limited. Many reagents used to introduce functional groups will react with the reactive intermediates described above, and the alkanes will have no opportunity to react with the catalyst. Below a few catalytic reactions will be described of relatively electron-rich metal complexes. 

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A number of transition-metal complexes of RNSO ligands have been structurally characterized. Three bonding modes, r(A,5), o-(5)-trigonal and o (5 )-pyramidal, have been observed (Scheme 9.1). Side-on (N,S) coordination is favoured by electron-rich (et or j °) metal centers, while the ff(S)-trigonal mode is preferred for less electron-rich metal centres (or those with competitive strong r-acid co-ligands). As expected ti (N,S)... 

There is an interesting paradox in transition-metal chemistry which we have mentioned earlier - namely, that low and high oxidation state complexes both tend towards a covalency in the metal-ligand bonding. Low oxidation state complexes are stabilized by r-acceptor ligands which remove electron density from the electron rich metal center. High oxidation state complexes are stabilized by r-donor ligands which donate additional electron density towards the electron deficient metal centre. 

While Fe(- -3)- and Fe(+2)-ate complexes are formed by the coordination of four anionic ligands, more electron-rich metal centers tend to bind neutral or even... 

Uson, R. (1989) Electron-rich metal centers (Au, Pt) as sources of organometallic complexes with unusual features. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 372, 171-182. 

Metal hydrides containing transition metal (TM)-hydrogen complexes, with the transition metal in a formally low oxidation state, are of fundamental interest for clarifying how an electron-rich metal atom can be stabilized without access to the conventional mechanism for relieving the electron density by back-donation to suitable ligand orbitals. By reacting electropositive alkali or alkaline earth metals ( -elements) with group 7, 8, 9, and 10 transition metals in... 

The Carbyne Carbon. Protic and Lewis acids can add to the carbyne carbon of complexes containing electron-rich metal centers ... 

The facility with which electrophilic halocarbene complexes undergo substitution reactions makes them extremely versatile synthetic intermediates, and this section summarizes these synthetic possibilities. Scheme 3 illustrates the usefulness of RuCl2(=CCl2)(CO)(PPh3)2. When the ligands are bound to electron-rich metal centers the electrophilicity is much reduced and interaction of the M=C function with some electrophiles can be observed. 

Hydrogen transfer from electron-rich metal hydrides to electron acceptors... 

M = Fe, M = Rh (24)) is relateS to [Rh5(CO)14I]2 since the iodide substituted Rh atom is replaced by the electron rich metal, M , which is tfiln associated with more carbonyls than the other metals, M. 

The resistance of metal carbonyls to addition across the CO bond may reflect the influence of the adjacent electron rich metal center, which can delocalize electron density onto the car-... 

In view of the fact that early transition metal alkyls insert CO under very mild conditions (2, 5.) we chose to examine the reactions of electron-rich metal hydrides ( ) with the resultant dihapto acyl complexes. Such acyls obviously benefit from reduction of the CO bond order from three (in OO) to two. More significantly, the dihapto binding mode will significantly enhance the electrophilic character of the acyl carbon. 

An electron-rich metal can deprotonate the dicarbonyl derivative, affording the hydridopalladium intermediate 23, which can undergo a Tr-allyl 24 formation through diene insertion (which can be assimilated to a hydridopalladation of olefin) (Scheme 7). The attack of the enolate to the -jr-allyl species occurs with good enantioselectivity in the presence of the chiral ligand. The final product 21 is released and the palladium(O) complex 22 is regenerated. 

Crowe proposed that benzylidene 6 would be stabilised, relative to alkylidene 8, by conjugation of the a-aryl substituent with the electron-rich metal-carbon bond. Formation of metallacyclobutane 10, rather than 9, should then be favoured by the smaller size and greater nucleophilicity of an incoming alkyl-substituted alkene. Electron-deficient alkyl-substituents would stabilise the competing alkylidene 8, leading to increased production of the self-metathesis product. The high trans selectivity observed was attributed to the greater stability of a fra s- ,p-disubstituted metallacyclobutane intermediate. 

In the reaction of group 13 element halides with metal carbonyl dianions, the analysis is more complex than observed for the reactions with metal monoanions. Upon addition of metal dianions to EX3 or REX3, either one or two halide ions may be eliminated. When only one halide ion is eliminated per added metal dianion, the complexes may still be viewed as E3+ derivatives (Equations (33)-(36)).19 This may be controlled to some extent by the stoichiometry of the reaction. Comparison of Equations (33)19 and (34)19 shows that the electron demand at the main group element can be satisfied by coordination either to an electron-rich metal center 26 or formation of a halide bridge 27. Ligand-stabilized forms may also be prepared in this fashion (Equation (36)).19... 

It did not prove possible to synthesize a substituent-free Ga complex with formula Cp (CO)2Fe Fe(CO)4 Ga (Scheme 13).43 Addition of bipy to 30 resulted in halide elimation, but the main group element in the product 31 was coordinated by the bipy ligand. Upon addition of dppe, however, substitution of the carbonyl ligands occurred instead along with halide ion elimination to produce the substituent-free Ga complex 32. It has a linear coordination environment (Fe-Ga-Fe angle = 176.01(4)°), and the Ga-Fe bond distances are much shorter than in those related adducts where donor ligands are also bound to the Ga atom.43 The authors attributed the non-observation of the carbonyl derivative to a need for an electron-rich metal center to stabilize the Fe-Ga bond via 7r-backdonation. 

The oxidative addition of alkyl halides can proceed in different ways, although the result is usually atrans addition independent of the mechanism. In certain cases the reaction proceeds as an SN2 reaction as in organic chemistry. That is to say that the electron-rich metal nucleophile attacks the carbon atom of the alkyl halide, the halide being the leaving group. This process leads to inversion of the stereochemistry of the carbon atom (only when the carbon atom is asymmetric can this be observed). There are also examples in which racemisation occurs. This has been explained on the basis of a radical chain... 

In examples 2.22 a and b the metals increase their valence by two, and this is not just a formalism as indeed the titanium(II) and the nickel(O) are very electron rich metal centres. During the reaction a flow of electrons takes place from the metal to the organic fragments, which end up as anions. In these two reactions the metal provides two electrons for the process as in oxidative addition reactions. The difference between cycloaddition and oxidative addition is that during oxidative addition a bond in the adding molecule is being broken, whereas in cycloaddition reactions fragments are combined. 

Most likely the cobalt catalyst is HCo(CO)2(L), which has a very electron rich metal centre and dissociation of CO does not occur under the reaction conditions. The first step is a reaction of the cobalt hydride with ethylene oxide forming a hydroxyethylcobalt species, which does not require dissociation of... 

CO Subsequently a migratory insertion will take place. Oxidative addition of H2 will be faster at the electron rich metal centre and thus the aldehyde will form. Hydrogenation takes place at ruthenium (added as Ru3(CO)i2) as indeed catalyst systems containing cobalt only are known to give 3-hydroxypropanal as the product. 

We are not aware of any industrial application that uses metal activation of C-H bonds to obtain functionalised molecules. We have included this topic, because it is potentially of great importance by providing a short-cut for the conversion of hydrocarbons to its functionalised derivatives. Two extreme cases will be discussed, reactions with electron-rich metal complexes and reactions with electrophilic metal complexes. As always in organometallic chemistry there are cases in between that utilise both bonding interactions. 

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