Hard Lewis acid

In summary, water is clearly an extremely bad solvent for coordination of a hard Lewis acid to a hard Lewis base. Hence, catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water is expected to be difficult due to the relative inefficiency of the interactions between the Diels-Alder reactants and the Lewis-acid catalyst in this medium. 

Analogously, water is extremely efficient in weakening hard Lewis add - hard Lewis base interactions. Consequently, when aiming at catalysis by hard Lewis adds, the inefficiency of the interaction between the catalyst and the substrate is a serious problem. Strangely enough, this characteristic of water is not recognised by many researchers working with hard Lewis acids in... 

We conclude that, when employirg hard Lewis-acids in aqueous solution, the term Lewis-acid catalysis should be used with caution, and only after evidence for a direct interaction between Lewis-acid and substrate has been obtained. 

Finally, if there could be a way in which in water selective ri Jt-coordination to the carbonyl group of an a,P-imsatLirated ketone can be achieved, this would be a breakthrough, since it would subject monodentate reactants to catalysis by hard Lewis acids ". ... 

Developments along these three lines can be expected to greatly extend the yet limited utility of catalysis by hard Lewis acids in aqueous media. The work described in this thesis has demonstrated drat these efforts can be rewarded by increased in rate and most importantly, enantioselectivity. 

In Chapter 6 we survey what has been accomplished and indicate directions for future research. Furthermore, we critically review the influence of water on Lewis acid - Lewis base interactions. This influence has severe implications for catalysis, in particular when hard Lewis acids and bases are involved. We conclude that claims of Lewis-acid catalysis should be accompanied by evidence for a direct interaction between catalyst and substrate. 

For the activation of a substrate such as 19a via coordination of the two carbonyl oxygen atoms to the metal, one should expect that a hard Lewis acid would be more suitable, since the carbonyl oxygens are hard Lewis bases. Nevertheless, Fu-rukawa et al. succeeded in applying the relative soft metal palladium as catalyst for the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction between 1 and 19a (Scheme 6.36) [79, 80]. They applied the dicationic Pd-BINAP 54 as the catalyst, and whereas this type of catalytic reactions is often carried out at rt or at 0°C, the reactions catalyzed by 54 required heating at 40 °C in order to proceed. In most cases mixtures of endo-21 and exo-21 were obtained, however, high enantioselectivity of up to 93% were obtained for reactions of some derivatives of 1. 

A hard Lewis acid has an acceptor atom with low polarizability. Most metal atoms and ions are hard acids. In general, the smaller the ionic radius and the larger the charge, the harder the acid. The ion, with an ionic... 

The designation of hard acids is not restricted to metal cations. For example, in BF3 the small boron atom in its +3 oxidation state is bonded to three highly electronegative fluorine atoms. All the B—F bonds are polarized away from a boron center that is already electron-deficient. Boron trifiuoride is a hard Lewis acid. 

Hard Lewis acids tend to combine with hard Lewis bases. 

Aluminum is unique among the main group metals. All other p block metals have filled valence d orbitals. As a consequence, these metals have much in common with their transition metal neighbors. They tend to be soft Lewis bases. Aluminum, on the other hand, lacks a filled d orbital set and is a hard Lewis acid that has more in common with its nearest neighbor, magnesium. Highly reactive, aluminum is found naturally in the +3 oxidation state and is difficult to reduce to the pure metal. Thus, although tin and lead have been known since antiquity, aluminum was not discovered until 1825 and did not become a common commodity until more than 60 years later. 

Another key feature of sulfur chemistry is the Lewis acidity of sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is a common atmospheric pollutant that results from burning coal to produce electricity. Most coal reserves in North America include significant amounts of sulfur-containing impurities. When coal is burned, sulfur combines with O2 to form SO2, a hard Lewis acid. 

Another feature of the metal ions that are typically involved in cementitious bonding in AB cements is that most of them fall into the category of hard in Pearson s Hard and Soft Acids and Bases scheme (Pearson, 1963). The underlying principle of this classification is that bases may be divided into two categories, namely those that are polarizable or soft, and those that are non-polarizable or hard. Lewis acids too may be essentially divided into hard and soft, depending on polarizability. From these classifications emerges the useful generalization that hard acids prefer to associate with hayd bases and soft acids prefer to associate with soft bases (see Section 2.3.7). 

Neutral benzol,3,2-diazaphospholes or their tetrameric cycloaddition products react with hard Lewis acids to give N-coordinated Lewis acid-base complexes [13, 80, 81] this reaction can be used to disassemble the otherwise stable oligomers into monomeric units at ambient temperature. 

A modification of the HSAB approach was first explained by C. K. Jorgensen in connection with the stability of a cobalt complex. Under normal circumstances, Co3+ is a hard Lewis acid. However, when... 

In Chapter 9, the hard-soft acid-base principle was discussed, and numerous applications of the principle were presented. This principle is also of enormous importance in coordination chemistry. First-row transition metals in high oxidation states have the characteristics of hard Lewis acids (small size and high charge). Consequently, ions such as Cr3+, Fe3+, and Co3+ are hard Lewis acids that bond best to hard Lewis bases. When presented with the opportunity to bond to NH3 or PR3, these metal ions bond better to NH3, which is the harder base. On the other hand, Cd2+ bonds better to PR3 because of the more favorable soft acid-soft base interaction. 

Organogermanium chorides R GeCl(4- ) (n = 1-3) are strong and hard Lewis acids. When these compounds are extracted into alkaline aqueous solutions they become hydrolysed to the corresponding hydroxides. On acidification of these aqueous solutions with... 

While main group metals and early transition metals are hard Lewis acids favoring coordination of carbonyl groups, gold, one of the late transition metals, is classified as a soft metal that activates 7r-electron systems like olefins and... 

In summary, water appears as an extremely unsuitable solvent for coordination of hard Lewis acids to hard Lewis bases, as it strongly solvates both species and hinders their interaction. Hence, catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water is expected to be difficult due to the relative inefficiency of the interactions between the Diels-Alder reactants and the Lewis acid catalyst. On the other hand, the high stereoselectivities and yields observed in biosyntheses, with water as the solvent, indicate that these rationalizations cannot entirely be true. As a matter of fact, we will demonstrate in the following that Lewis acid catalysis in water is not only possible, but also allows for effective as well as environmentally friendly reaction conditions. 

An inner-sphere complex is formed between Lewis acids and bases, while an outer-sphere complex involves a water molecule interposed between the acid and the base. A hard Lewis acid is a molecular unit of small size, high oxidation state, high electronegativity, and low polarizability whereas a soft Lewis acid is a molecular unit of relatively large size, characterized by low oxidation state, low electronegativity, and high polarizability. Based on this characterization, hard bases prefer to complex hard acids, and soft bases prefer to complex soft acids, under similar conditions of acid-base strength. 

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