From Other Carbene Complexes

As discussed in Section 3.1.6, cyclopropenes can react with rhodium complexes [38,585,587-589,1061,1063] or other transition metal derivatives to yield vinylcarbene complexes (see Section 3.1.6). This reaction will proceed particularly smoothly with strained cyclopropenes, because these can already isomerize thermally to vinylcarbenes [1064]. Hence the formation of vinylcarbene complexes from alkynes can proceed by initial cyclopropanation, followed by reaction of the resulting cyclopropene with the complex L,M. 

Alternatively, [2 -1- 2] cycloaddition of carbene complexes to alkynes, followed by [2 -I- 2] cycloreversion can also lead to the formation of vinylcarbene complexes (Sections 3.2.5.6 and 2.2.4). 

The intramolecular addition of acylcarbene complexes to alkynes is a general method for the generation of electrophilic vinylcarbene complexes. These reactive intermediates can undergo inter- or intramolecular cyclopropanation reactions [1066 -1068], C-H bond insertions [1061,1068-1070], sulfonium and oxonium ylide formation [1071], carbonyl ylide formation [1067,1069,1071], carbene dimerization [1066], and other reactions characteristic of electrophilic carbene complexes. 

2 Synthetic Applications of Acceptor-Substituted Carbene Complexes 

Acceptor-substituted carbene complexes are highly reactive intermediates, capable of transforming organic compounds in many different ways. Typical reactions include insertion into o-bonds, cyclopropanation, and ylide formation. Generally, acceptor-substituted carbene complexes are not isolated and used in stoichiometric amounts, but generated in situ from a carbene precursor and transition metal derivative. Usually only catalytic quantities of a transition metal complex are required for complete conversion of a carbene precursor via an intermediate carbene complex into the final product. 

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From Other Carbene Complexes by Exchange of the Carbene Ligand. . 234... 

In Figure 2.2 the most important synthetic approaches to alkoxy- or (acy-loxy)carbene complexes from non-carbene precursors are sketched. Some of these strategies can also be used to prepare amino- and thiocarbene complexes. These procedures will be discussed in detail in the following sections. In addition to the methods sketched in Figure 2.2, many complexes of this type have been prepared by chemical transformation of other heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes. Because of the high stability of most of these compounds, many different reactions can be used to modify the substituents at C without degrading the carbon-metal double bond. The generation of heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes from other carbene complexes will be discussed in Section 2.2. 

Several other carbene complexes have been isolated from similar reactions, or from metal halides and 1-alkynes in the presence of alcohols and strong acids (HC104, HBF4, HPF6) ... 

One other carbene complex, a p2-vinylidene, has been prepared, from the xenophilic metal-metal bonded [Tp C2 4BrNi—RuCp(CO)2] (62) upon its reaction with PhC=CH. This affords 63, which is bridged by both i2-C=C(H)Ph and i2-CO ligands (Scheme 5).17... 

In general, the termination reactions of these polymerizations are not well understood but, depending upon the metal and the monomer, reductive coupling of the metal carbene fragments to give alkene and reduced metal complexes is one possibility. Another termination reaction appears to be initiated by -Hydride Elimination from the carbene complex. These mechanisms have been observed in well-defined catalyst systems, and are possible in the ill-defined systems also. The fact that most catalysts are sensitive to oxygen and moisture (or other proton sources) means that termination of the polymer chain by added or adventitious sources of water is a common problem, especially for the ill-defined catalysts. 

The anions generated from alkylamino carbene complexes can be alkylated in high yields with simple alkyl halides without any detectable amount of dialkylation. This is illustrated for the methyl pyiro-lidine complex (109), which can be alkylated cleanly with ethyl bromide to give the monoalkylated product (110) in 87% yield. The methyl pyrrolidine complex (109) can be prepared in nearly quantitative yield quite simply by treating an ether solution of the methyl methoxy complex (88a) with pyrrolidine at room temperature for a few minutes. A few examples of diastereoselective alkylations are known. The 0-alkylimidate carbene complex (112) can be alkylated with methyl triflate to give a 93 7 mixture of (113) and (114), which are diastereomers as a result of the chiral axis about the aza-allenyl linkage. Other examples of diastereoselective alkylations will be presented in Section 9.2.2.7. 

Starting from the very reactive Pd2(dae)3 (dae = diallyl ether), " an alternative route to other carbene complexes of palladium(O) has been reported recently. These are of the type Pd(carbene)(77 -dae), with differently substituted imidazol-2-ylidene molecules. Theoretical calculations and five X-ray diffraction structures were undertaken to analyze the electronic and steric factors responsible for the unprecedented catalytic efficiency of these compounds in the telomerization reaction of 1,3-butadiene with alcohols to give alkyl octadienyl ethers. 

Ketene Ph3Si(EtO)C=C=0 prepared in situ from the carbene complexes (CO)3M=C(OEt)SiPh3 (M=Cr, Mo, W) with 50bar carbon monoxide was found to react at 80-100 °C, among others, vdth N-methylbenzimine to give the corresponding P-lactam in 90% isolated yield (reaction 8.21) [39]. 

Many other organometaUic compounds also react with carbonyl groups. Lithium alkyls and aryls add to the ester carbonyl group to give either an alcohol or an olefin. Lithium dimethyl cuprate has been used to prepare ketones from esters (41). Tebbe s reagent, Cp2TiCH2AlCl(CH2)2, where Cp = clyclopentadienyl, and other metal carbene complexes can convert the C=0 of esters to C=CR2 (42,43). 

The activation of silylene complexes is induced both photochemically or by addition of a base, e.g. pyridine. A similar base-induced cleavage is known from the chemistry of carbene complexes however, in this case the carbenes so formed dimerize to give alkenes. Finally, a silylene cleavage can also be achieved thermally. Melting of the compounds 4-7 in high vacuum yields the dimeric complexes 48-51 with loss of HMPA. The dimers, on the other hand, can be transformed into polysilanes and iron carbonyl clusters above 120 °C. In all cases, the resulting polymers have been identified by spectroscopic methods. 

The insertion of alkynes into a chromium-carbon double bond is not restricted to Fischer alkenylcarbene complexes. Numerous transformations of this kind have been performed with simple alkylcarbene complexes, from which unstable a,/J-unsaturated carbene complexes were formed in situ, and in turn underwent further reactions in several different ways. For example, reaction of the 1-me-thoxyethylidene complex 6a with the conjugated enyne-ketimines and -ketones 131 afforded pyrrole [92] and furan 134 derivatives [93], respectively. The alkyne-inserted intermediate 132 apparently undergoes 671-electrocyclization and reductive elimination to afford enol ether 133, which yields the cycloaddition product 134 via a subsequent hydrolysis (Scheme 28). This transformation also demonstrates that Fischer carbene complexes are highly selective in their reactivity toward alkynes in the presence of other multiple bonds (Table 6). 

The electrophilic carbene carbon atom of Fischer carbene complexes is usually stabilised through 7i-donation of an alkoxy or amino substituent. This type of electronic stabilisation renders carbene complexes thermostable nevertheless, they have to be stored and handled under inert gas in order to avoid oxidative decomposition. In a typical benzannulation protocol, the carbene complex is reacted with a 10% excess of the alkyne at a temperature between 45 and 60 °C in an ethereal solvent. On the other hand, the non-stabilised and highly electrophilic diphenylcarbene pentacarbonylchromium complex needs to be stored and handled at temperatures below -20 °C, which allows one to carry out benzannulation reactions at room temperature [34]. Recently, the first syntheses of tricyclic carbene complexes derived from diazo precursors have been performed and applied to benzannulation [35a,b]. The reaction of the non-planar dibenzocycloheptenylidene complex 28 with 1-hexyne afforded the Cr(CO)3-coordinated tetracyclic benzannulation product 29 in a completely regio- and diastereoselective way [35c] (Scheme 18). 

Other miscellaneous imines that underwent photoreaction with chromium alkoxycarbenes include iminodithiocarbonates [33],the mono-N-phenylimine of benzil and the bis-JV-phenyl imine of acetoin [20]. By preparing the chromium carbene complex from 13CO-labeled chromium hexacarbonyl, /J-lactams with two adjacent 13C labels were synthesized [34]. 

These complexes can be isolated in some cases in others they are generated in situ from appropriate precursors, of which diazo compounds are among the most important. These compounds, including CH2N2 and other diazoalkanes, react with metals or metal salts (copper, palladium, and rhodium are most commonly used) to give the carbene complexes that add CRR to double bonds. Ethyl a-diazoacetate reacts with styrene in the presence of bis(ferrocenyl) bis(imine), for example, to give ethyl 2-phenylcyclopropane-l-carboxylate. Optically active complexes have... 

One-electron oxidation of the vinylidene complex transforms it from an Fe=C axially symmetric Fe(ll) carbene to an Fe(lll) complex where the vinylidene carbon bridges between iron and a pyrrole nitrogen. Cobalt and nickel porphyrin carbene complexes adopt this latter structure, with the carbene fragment formally inserted into the metal-nitrogen bond. The difference between the two types of metalloporphyrin carbene, and the conversion of one type to the other by oxidation in the case of iron, has been considered in a theoretical study. The comparison is especially interesting for the iron(ll) and cobalt(lll) carbene complexes Fe(Por)CR2 and Co(Por)(CR2) which both contain metal centers yet adopt... 

Development of the chemistry of metal carbenes commenced with the characterization of complexes such as (CO)sW=C(OMe)Ph by Fischer and his co-workers (e.g., Ref. 14 and references therein). The series of hydrocarbon-substituted carbene compounds discovered later by the Schrock group (e.g., Ref. 15 and references therein) appeared to be so different from the other known carbene complexes that they were placed in a different class altogether. Overemphasis of this distinction has persisted in the literature of carbene complexes, even to the present day. 

With the long alkyl chain substitutions on the A-heterocyclic carbenes, lamella-structured silver(i) carbene complexes 27a and 27b (Figure 14) were isolated.74 It is interesting to note that the synthetic procedures for the two complexes are the same except for the use of different solvents of crystallization. The dinuclear 27a was obtained from recrystallization in dichloromethane- -hexane while the tetranuclear 27b was obtained from acetone. The structure of 27a could be interpreted as the dimeric form of [Ag(carbene)Br] bridged by intermolecular Ag-Br interactions. The Ag-G bond has a distance of 2.094(5) A. The tetranuclear 27b, on the other hand, could be regarded as two monocationic bis(carbene)silver(i) bridged by an [Ag2Br4]2 anion, with the presence of short Ag(cationic)-Ag(anionic) contact (3.0038(18) A) and comparable Ag-G bond distances (2.0945(5), 2.138(13) A). A related... 

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