Iminoboranes with alkynes

Iminoboranes, R-N=B-R, are isoelectronic with alkynes and contain 2-coordinate boron their chemistry has recently been review-... 

In particular, iminoboranes (XBNR) are isoelectronic with alkynes (XCCR). Well-known comparable pairs of isoelectronic species are aminoboranes (X2BNR2) and alkenes (X2CCR2), amine-boranes (X3BNR3) and alkanes (X3CCR3), borazines [(XBNR)3] and benzenes [(XCCR)3], etc. The structure of aminoboranes, amine-boranes, and borazines is well known from many examples. It has turned out that these BN species are not only isoelectronic, but also have structures comparable with the corresponding CC species. In the case of borazines, the aromatic character was widely discussed on the basis of theoretical and experimental arguments. The structural and physical properties of... 

Diels-Alder reactions with alkynes as dienophiles have been known for a long time. Iminoboranes, however, will more readily cyclodimerize than react with dienes, and even the cyclodimers are generally superior to dienes in the competition for excess iminoborane. Among many attempts, therefore, only two reactions with iminoboranes as dienophiles have been successful, and in both of them the diene is cyclo-pentadiene [Eq. (55)] (9, 14). 

The stabilization of iminoboranes can yield five different tj ies of products cyclodimers (1,3,2,4-diazadiboretidines, Di), cyclotrimers (borazines, Tr), bicyclotrimers (Dewar borazines, Tr ), cyclotetramers (octahydro-l,3,5,7-tetraza-2,4,6,8-tetraborocines, Te), and polymers (polyiminoboranes, Po) these substances are isoelectronic with cyclobutadienes, benzenes, Dewar benzenes, cyclooctatetraenes, and polyalkynes, respectively, which are all known to be products of the thermodynamic stabilization of alkynes. 

Alkynes XC=CR cannot be organoborated, when X represents an alkyl group. In the case of X = H 74) or X = Me3Sn (75), a particular type of alkyloboration, coupled to the migration of X, is possible [Eq. (36)]. Such a reaction was not observed with iminoboranes. 

Cp2Ti=CH2 (Cp = cyclopentadienyl) is liberated from a titanacyclo-butane primer by thermal cleavage in the presence of an iminoborane (product IX) (81). Alkynes may also undergo [2 + 2]-cyclodimerizations with unsaturated polar molecules. Rather polar alkynes seem to be favorable, e.g., ethoxyethyne, which can react with hexafluoroacetone to give the rather unstable product X (78). 

Alkynes have been well explored as dipolarophiles in the [3 -t- 21-cycloaddition with almost all possible 1,3-dipoles (78), whereas the reaction of iminoboranes as dipolarophiles has focused on covalent azides as 1,3-dipoles. Most well-characterized iminoboranes were reacted with phenyl azide, according to Eq. (52) (11-14,17, 20). 

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