Insertion reactions transition metal complexes

The study of stoichiometric CO insertions into transition metal complexes is of great importance because this reaction is the first step m the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide. Hence, these investigations can lead to the possibility of introducing carbon dioxide into transition metal-catalyzed synthetic processes. Analogies with carbon monoxide chemistry may be drawn, for instance. from the CO insertion into metal alkyl bonds leading to such important industrial processes as hydroformylation and carbonylalion. 

Because various important industrial organic processes utilize olefins, convenient methods to convert olefins into various products are vital. Transition metal catalysts with proper ligands have proved most useful in controlling the course of these reactions. Transition metal complexes catalyze skeletal isomerization, double bond isomerization, polymerization, and other processes. Insertion of a terminal olefin into a transition metal hydride bond by 1,2-inserfion or... 

Pd-cataly2ed reactions of butadiene are different from those catalyzed by other transition metal complexes. Unlike Ni(0) catalysts, neither the well known cyclodimerization nor cyclotrimerization to form COD or CDT[1,2] takes place with Pd(0) catalysts. Pd(0) complexes catalyze two important reactions of conjugated dienes[3,4]. The first type is linear dimerization. The most characteristic and useful reaction of butadiene catalyzed by Pd(0) is dimerization with incorporation of nucleophiles. The bis-rr-allylpalladium complex 3 is believed to be an intermediate of 1,3,7-octatriene (7j and telomers 5 and 6[5,6]. The complex 3 is the resonance form of 2,5-divinylpalladacyclopentane (1) and pallada-3,7-cyclononadiene (2) formed by the oxidative cyclization of butadiene. The second reaction characteristic of Pd is the co-cyclization of butadiene with C = 0 bonds of aldehydes[7-9] and CO jlO] and C = N bonds of Schiff bases[ll] and isocyanate[12] to form the six-membered heterocyclic compounds 9 with two vinyl groups. The cyclization is explained by the insertion of these unsaturated bonds into the complex 1 to generate 8 and its reductive elimination to give 9. 

The subjects of structure and bonding in metal isocyanide complexes have been discussed before 90, 156) and will not be treated extensively here. A brief discussion of this subject is presented in Section II of course, special emphasis is given to the more recent information which has appeared. Several areas of current study in the field of transition metal-isocyanide complexes have become particularly important and are discussed in this review in Section III. These include the additions of protonic compounds to coordinated isocyanides, probably the subject most actively being studied at this time insertion reactions into metal-carbon bonded species nucleophilic reactions with metal isocyanide complexes and the metal-catalyzed a-addition reactions. Concurrent with these new developments, there has been a general expansion of descriptive chemistry of isocyanide-metal complexes, and further study of the physical properties of selected species. These developments are summarized in Section IV. 

Few quantitative data are available on the relative nucleophilicities of L toward various alkyl carbonyls. The rates of the reaction of CpMo(CO)3Me with L in toluene (Table II) decrease as a function of the latter reactant P( -Bu)3 > P( -OBu)j > PPhj > P(OPh)j, but the spread is relatively small (<8). The above order is that customarily observed for 8 2 reactions of low-valent transition metal complexes (J, 214). Interestingly, neither CpMo(CO)3Me nor CpFe(CO)2Me reacts with 1 or N, S, and As donor ligands 28, 79). This is in direct contrast to the insertion reactions of MeMn(CO)5 which manifest much less selectivity toward various L (see Section VI,B,C,D for details). 

Besides dissociation of ligands, photoexcitation of transition metal complexes can facilitate (1) - oxidative addition to metal atoms of C-C, C-H, H-H, C-Hal, H-Si, C-0 and C-P moieties (2) - reductive elimination reactions, forming C-C, C-H, H-H, C-Hal, Hal-Hal and H-Hal moieties (3) - various rearrangements of atoms and chemical bonds in the coordination sphere of metal atoms, such as migratory insertion to C=C bonds, carbonyl and carbenes, ot- and P-elimination, a- and P-cleavage of C-C bonds, coupling of various moieties and bonds, isomerizations, etc. (see [11, 12] and refs, therein). 

The mechanism for the reaction catalyzed by cationic palladium complexes (Scheme 24) differs from that proposed for early transition metal complexes, as well as from that suggested for the reaction shown in Eq. 17. For this catalyst system, the alkene substrate inserts into a Pd - Si bond a rather than a Pd-H bond [63]. Hydrosilylation of methylpalladium complex 100 then provides methane and palladium silyl species 112 (Scheme 24). Complex 112 coordinates to and inserts into the least substituted olefin regioselectively and irreversibly to provide 113 after coordination of the second alkene. Insertion into the second alkene through a boat-like transition state leads to trans cyclopentane 114, and o-bond metathesis (or oxidative addition/reductive elimination) leads to the observed trans stereochemistry of product 101a with regeneration of 112 [69]. 

The important feature is the formation of a coordinatively unsaturated site (cus), permitting the reaction to occur in the coordinative sphere of the metal cation. The cus is a metal cationic site that is able to present at least three vacancies permitting, in the DeNOx process, to insert ligands such as NO, CO, H20, and any olefin or CxHyOz species that is able to behave like ligands in its coordinative environment. A cus can be located on kinks, ledges or corners of crystals [16] in such a location, they are unsaturated. This situation is quite comparable to an exchanged cation in a zeolite, as studied by Iizuka and Lundsford [17] or to a transition metal complex in solution, as studied by Hendriksen et al. [18] for NO reduction in the presence of CO. 

Redox reactions are considered as being able to provide versatile and efficient methods for bringing about ring transformations. Transition metal complexes in particular are able to induce or catalyze oxidative or reductive transformations of small ring compounds. Organometallics, such as metal-lacycles derived by the insertion of metal atoms into rings, are involved as key intermediates in many cases, allowing subsequent functionalization or carbon-carbon bond formation. 

Hydrogenation Reactions Catalyzed by Transition Metal Complexes, 17, 319 Infrared Intensities of Metal Carbonyl Stretching Vibrations, 10, 199 Infrared and Raman Studies of ir-Complexes, 1, 239 Insertion Reactions of Compounds of Metals and Metalloids, 5, 225 Insertion Reactions of Transition Metal-Carbon Bonded Compounds 1. Carbon Monoxide Insertion, 11, 87... 

The abundance of accessible donor and acceptor orbitals in common transition-metal complexes facilitates low-energy bond rearrangements such as insertion ( oxidative-addition ) reactions, thus enabling the critically important catalytic potential of metals. 

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. 

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. 

Jack Halpern Perhaps I have more reason than anyone else to be disposed to the view that 7r-complexing is an important step of the insertion reaction, because I think that possibly we have the only reasonably clear cut case of an olefin insertion reaction where a complex is clearly implicated. This is the ruthenium chloride-catalyzed hydrogenation of certain olefins, which almost certainly involves the insertion of the olefin into a ruthenium hydrogen bond and where certainly a ruthenium olefin complex is involved as an observable reactant. Nevertheless, I am not at all sure to what extent this is a general or necessary feature of such insertion reactions. The important question is whether one or two coordination positions on the metal ion are involved in the transition state of the insertion reaction. For example, if one considers the insertion of an olefin, say into an M—X bond, then the transition state may look something like ... 

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