Hydrides insertion reactions

Probably the nickel carbonyl-catalyzed synthesis of acrylates from CO, acetylene, and hydroxylic solvent (78) involves an acetylene-hydride insertion reaction, followed by a CO insertion, and hydrolysis or acyl halide elimination. The actual catalyst in the acrylate synthesis is probably a hydride formed by the reversible addition of an acid to nickel carbonyl. 

Dihalocarbene ligands, like other neutral 2-e donor carbon ligands, are expected to participate in migratory-insertion reactions when bound adjacent to a rx-bound alkyl or hydride ligand. An example is provided by the following reaction (119) ... 

The fact that both the thermal and the photochemical insertion reactions yield the same products via formation of charge-transfer complexes leads to the conclusion that the reactive ion-radical pair in equation (52) is the common intermediate for both activation processes. Such a conclusion is further verified by the direct observation of anion-radical intermediates from the thermal reaction of TCNE and DDQ with various metal hydrides.188... 

Tributyltin hydride reduction of carbonyl compounds. The reduction of carbonyl compounds with metal hydrides can also proceed via an electron-transfer activation in analogy to the metal hydride insertion into TCNE.188 Such a notion is further supported by the following observations (a) the reaction rates are enhanced by light as well as heat 189 (b) the rate of the reduction depends strongly on the reduction potentials of ketones. For example, trifluoroacetophenone ( re<1 = —1.38 V versus SCE) is quantitatively reduced by Bu3SnH in propionitrile within 5 min, whereas the reduction of cyclohexanone (Erea — 2.4 V versus SCE) to cyclohexanol (under identical... 

The reversal of the insertion reaction [Eq. (10)] is not normally observed [in contrast to nickel hydride addition to olefins, Eq. (9)]. An exception is the skeletal isomerization of 1,4-dienes (88, 89). A side reaction—the allylhydrogen transfer reaction [Eq. (5)]—which results in the formation of allylnickel species such as 19 as well as alkanes should also be mentioned. This reaction accounts for the formation of small amounts of alkanes and dienes during the olefin oligomerization reactions (51). 

The rate also varies with butadiene concentration. However, the order of the rate dependence on butadiene concentration is temperature-de-pendent, i.e., a fractional order (0.34) at 30°C and first-order at 50°C (Tables II and III). Cramer s (4, 7) explanation for this temperature effect on the kinetics is that, at 50°C, the insertion reaction to form 4 from 3, although still slow, is no longer rate-determining. Rather, the rate-determining step is the conversion of the hexyl species in 4 into 1,4-hexadiene or the release of hexadiene from the catalyst complex. This interaction involves a hydride transfer from the hexyl ligand to a coordinated butadiene. This transfer should be fast, as indicated by some earlier studies of Rh-catalyzed olefin isomerization reactions (8). The slow release of the hexadiene is therefore attributed to the low concentration of butadiene. Thus, Scheme 2 can be expanded to include complex 6, as shown in Scheme 3. The rate of release of hexadiene depends on the concentra-... 

Reactions a and b in Scheme 8 represent different ways of coordination of butadiene on the nickel atom to form the transoid complex 27a or the cisoid complex 27b. The hydride addition reaction resulted in the formation of either the syn-7r-crotyl intermediate (28a), which eventually forms the trans isomer, or the anti-7r-crotyl intermediate (28b), which will lead to the formation of the cis isomer. Because 28a is thermodynamically more favorable than 28b according to Tolman (40) (equilibrium anti/syn ratio = 1 19), isomerization of the latter to the former can take place (reaction c). Thus, the trans/cis ratio of 1,4-hexadiene formed is determined by (i) the ratio of 28a to 28b and (ii) the extent of isomerization c before addition of ethylene to 28b, i.e., reaction d. The isomerization reaction can affect the trans/cis ratio only when the insertion reaction d is slower than the isomerization reaction c. 

The hydrogens within the octahedral olefin-dihydride intermediate are transferred consecutively with overall cis addition, and the rate-determining step (k9) is olefin insertion to give the alkyl- hydride. Kinetic and thermodynamic parameters for nearly all the steps of Fig. 1 have been estimated for the cyclohexene system. Because the insertion reaction is generally believed to require a cis disposition of the hydride and olefin... 

Hydride 38 is converted to the methyl derivative 40 upon treatment with diazomethane in the presence of Cu (equation 8)21. Presumably this insertion reaction proceeds with retention of configuration. 

The four hitherto known routes of the C-H insertion are shown in Scheme 1. In general, the insertion by singlet carbenes proceeds via route a in one step, whereas the reaction by triplet carbenes proceeds sequentially via route b, i.e., hydrogen abstraction followed by recombination of the radical pairs.4 Other stepwise mechanisms are hydride abstraction (route c) and proton abstraction (route d), both being followed by the recombination of ion pairs. However, extended study on routes c and d for synthetic purposes had not been done before we started, except for a few earlier studies on carbanion-promoted P C-H insertion reactions.5,6 Recent advances in transition metal-catalyzed... 

Since alkyllithium compounds and their carbanions have an isoelectronic structure with alkoxides, their reaction behavior with carbenes is expected to be similar to that of alkoxides, showing enhanced reactivity in both C-H insertion and hydride abstraction.35 In this reaction, the hydride abstraction cannot be followed by recombination and, therefore, can be differentiated from the insertion. Indeed, the reaction of alkyllithium compounds 70 or nitrile anions (see Section IV.B) with ethyl(phenylthio)carbenoid, which is generated by the reaction of 1-chloropropyl sulfide 69 with BuLi, takes place at the -position of 70 more or less in a similar manner giving both insertion product 71 and hydride abstraction products 72 and 73, respectively. This again supports a general rule C-H bonds at the vicinal position of a negatively charged atom are activated toward carbene insertion reactions (Scheme 22). 

Insertion reactions of C02 into the metal-hydride and metal-alkyl bonds are of considerable importance, since these reactions are involved not only in the catalytic cycle of the hydrogenation of C02 into formic acid but also in the catalytic cycle of co-polymerization of C02 and epoxide. In this regard, insertions of C02 into various metal-hydride, metal-alkyl, and similar bonds have been the subject of intense experimental investigation. For instance, C02 insertions into Cu(I)-CH3, Cu(I)-OR, Cu(I)-alkyl [26-28], Ru(II)-H [29], Cr(0)-H, Mo(0)-H, W(0)-H [30], Ni(II)-H and Ni(II)-CH3 bonds [31, 32] have been so far reported. 

We recently investigated [40] the reason why C02 is inserted into the Rh(I)-H bond with a significantly lower barrier than into the Rh(III)-H bond, as shown in Table 2. As discussed above, charge-transfer from the metal-hydride moiety to the K orbital of CO2 is very important in the CO2 insertion reaction, and, at the same time, the metal-formate moiety is very much stabilized by the donation of electrons from the metal fragment. Since the Rh(I) center is more electron-rich than Rh(III), the charge-transfer from the Rh(I)-H moiety to the k orbital of C02 is favored, and the formate moiety is provided with sufficient electrons. Consequently, CO2 is more easily inserted into the Rh(I)-H bond than into the Rh(III)-H bond. 

Silicon hydrides can also oxidatively add to low-valent transition metal complexes forming a metal hydride silyl complex which can undergo subsequent insertion reactions. This elementary step forms the basis for the hydrosilylation process for alkenes and ketones. 

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