Hydroamination thermodynamic

From a thermodynamic point of view, the addihon of NH3 and amines to olefins is feasible. For example, the free enthalpy for the addihon of NH3 to ethylene is AG° -4 kcal/mol [14]. Calculations showed that the enthalpies for the hydroamination of higher alkenes are in the range -7 to -16 kcal/mol and that the exothermicities of both hydrahon and hydroaminahon of alkenes are closely similar [15]. Such N-H addihons, however, are characterized by a high activation barrier which prevents the... 

Hydroamination involves the addition of primary or secondary amines to alkenes to afford terminal or branched higher value substituted amines via anti-Markovnikoff or Markovnikoff addition.144 Although the addition of RNH2 to C=C is thermodynamically favorable (Equation (14)), there is a strong entropic factor disfavoring N-H addition which has to be overcome through use of a metal catalyst. 

Hydroamination of Alkynes The discovery of palladium-catalyzed intramolecular addition of amines to acetylene coupled with the spectacular contribution of Hutchings opened the door for the synthesis of several nitrogen heterocycles. The first study in this field was performed by Utimoto et al., who researched gold catalyzed intramolecular 6-exo-dig hydroamination. Tautomerization of the initial enamines allowed them to obtain imines, which were thermodynamically more stable [111] (Scheme 8.20). 

Addition of ammonia and amines to alkenes (hydroamination) is thermodynamically feasible, but kinetically hindered, hence it requires activation of either of the reactants1,2,51. The intramolecular reaction is generally more easily accomplished than the intermolecular reaction and allows the stereochemistry to be controlled to a certain degree. 

A different catalytic cycle for alkene hydroamination is initiated by the oxidative addition of the N-H bond to the metal, followed by insertion of the alkene into the metal-nitrogen bond and reductive elimination to form the amine. The oxidative addition of unactivated N-H bonds to platinum(O) complexes is thermodynamically unfavorable, so the catalytic cycle cannot be completed17, but the successful iridium(I)-catalyzed amination of norbornene with aniline has been reported18. 

The formation of alkyne oligomers that are concomitantly formed in the hydroamination reactions catalyzed by the thorium complexes indicates that two possible different complexes can be considered as active, conceivably with inter-conversion causing the occurrence of the two parallel processes. The discernment between these two most probable mechanistic pathways to find the key organometallic intermediate, responsible for the hydroamination process, was achieved by kinetic and thermodynamic studies (Scheme 5). The first pathway proposed the insertion of an alkyne into a metal-imido (M=N) bond, as observed for early transition metal complexes [101]. The second pathway suggested the insertion of an alkyne into a metal-amido bond, as found in some lanthanide compounds [39, 58, 84, 85]... 

Examples of the [2+2] cycloadditions and the mechanisms of these processes were presented in detail in Chapter 13 on complexes containing metal-ligand multiple bonds. In short, coordination of the alkyne or allene precedes the [2+2] cycloaddition. This cycloaddition is thermodynamically favorable for aikynes and allenes, but is thermodynamically disfavorable for reactions of alkenes. Studies on the regioselectivity of the stoichiometric [2+2] cycloaddition and of the regioselectivity of zirconocene-catalyzed hydroamination revealed that the [2+2] process is reversible during the hydroaminations catalyzed by zir-conocene complexes. Moreover, it has been shown that addition of an alkyne to an isolated zirconocene azametallacyclobutene leads to exchange. 

While early efforts in rare earth systems focused on cyclohydroamination, pioneering contributions in group 4 catalyzed hydroamination catalysis focused on intermolecular reactions [8]. However, owing to the aforementioned thermodynamic problems associated with intermolecular alkene hydroamination and mechanistic hmitations (see later discussion), early efforts focused on alkyne hydroamination with a variety of primary amines. 

Allene hydroamination is less commonly explored, even though the thermodynamic profile of the reaction is comparable to alkyne hydroamination [40]. Intermolecular allene hydroamination has been established using group 4 catalysts in combination with reactive arylamine substrates [8, 41]. The more reactive aforementioned alkyne hydroamination catalyst 7 has been shown to be usefiil for allene hydroamination catalysis in an intermolecular manner, even with less reactive, sterically less demanding alkylallene substrates. In this case, only the branched product is observed (Table 15.5). These results show good selectivity for the branched product, and recent results show that even heteroatom-substituted allenes can be tolerated with this precatalyst [42]. 

General aspects of this reactivity,including theoretical studies,have been reviewed. Particular attention has been paid to reactions with amines to get more information on metal-catalyzed hydroamination of alkenes. A recent DFT theoretical study has evaluated the hydroamination process for different metals, concluding that nucleophilic attack of amine is thermodynamically and kinetically favorable for group 10 metals. " ... 

The intramolecular hydroamination reaction of aminoalkenes and other substrates involves two key steps in the catalytic cycle. Although the insertion step is generally perceived as the rate-determining step of the process, this may not be true for aU substrate classes. The hydroamination/cyclization of aminoalkenes differs significantly from reactions involving aminoalkynes, aminoaUenes, and conjugated aminodienes from a thermodynamic point of view. The alkene insertion step of the... 

Fig. 1 Thermodynamics of the elementary steps in rare earth metal-catalyzed hydroamination/ cyclizations [17, 27-31]...

The asymmetric hydroamination/cyclization of aminostilbenes has been studied utilizing chiral bisoxazoline lithium catalysts [242] and enantioselectivities reaching as high as 91% ee were achieved (Scheme 16). The reactions were performed in toluene at —60°C to give the exo-cyclization product 69 under kinetic control. However, the hydroamination/cychzation reaction in THF solution is reversible, producing the thermodynamically favored e z/o-cychzation product 70 when the reaction time was extended to 24 h. 

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