Iridium: carbonyl compounds

Various iridium carbonyl compounds can be prepared on the surface of Si02 (Scheme 16.11) or on the surface of MgO or AI2O3 (Scheme 16.12) as described below. 

Scheme 16.11 Convenient syntheses of iridium carbonyl compounds on the surface of Si02 (COT = cyclooctene).

Under the reaction conditions the starting complexes react with CO with displacement of coordinated diolefin to form iridium carbonyl compounds, which are the active catalytic species for the WGSR. The catalytic activity slightly increases when bidentate ligands are used and appears to be rather sensitive to temperature. 

Methanol carbonylation catalyzed by a combination of iridium-carbonyl compounds and iodide additives was first reported by Monsanto in the 1970s. The mechanism of this process was studied by Forster. ° In the 1990s, BP reported an improved catalyst system based on iridium and iodide that included a "promoter," such as [Ru(CO)jy j. These Ir-based Cativa catalysts are about five times more active than the Rh catalysts, more stable in the presence of low amounts of water (5 wt %), and more soluble. In addition, Lr is usually less expensive than Rh. BP not only built new Cativa plants, but were able to convert existing plants containing rhodium catalysts to plants containing iridium Cativa catalysts because of the similarity of the Ir and Rh systems. 

The stereospecific polymerization of alkenes is catalyzed by coordination compounds such as Ziegler-Natta catalysts, which are heterogeneous TiCl —AI alkyl complexes. Cobalt carbonyl is a catalyst for the polymerization of monoepoxides several rhodium and iridium coordination compounds... 

Wickman and Silverthom [276] have investigated bond properties in molecular adducts of the planar Vaska type compound frans-h s(triphenyl-phosphine)iridium carbonyl chloride, IrCl(CO) ((C6H5)3P)2, with small molecules such as H2, O2, CI2, I2, CH3I, and HCl. They essentially observed a decrease of the isomer shift in the following series of adduct molecules XY H2 > HCl > CH3J > O2 > I2 > CI2,... 

There have been many reports of the use of iridium-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds, and this section focuses on more recent examples where the control of enantioselectivity is not considered. In particular, recent interest has been in the use of iridium A -heterocyclic carbene complexes as active catalysts for transfer hydrogenation. However, alternative iridium complexes are effective catalysts [1, 2] and the air-stable complex 1 has been shown to be exceptionally active for the transfer hydrogenation of ketones [3]. For example, acetophenone 2 was converted into the corresponding alcohol 3 using only 0.001 mol% of this... 

The control of enantioselectivity in the reduction of carbonyl compounds provides an opportunity for obtaining the product alcohols in an enantiomerically enriched form. For transfer hydrogenation, such reactions have been dominated by the use of enantiomerically pure ruthenium complexes [33, 34], although Pfaltz and coworkers had shown by 1991 that high levels of enantioselectivity could be obtained using iridium(I) bis-oxazoline complexes [35]. 

A wide range of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen nucleophiles react with allylic esters in the presence of iridium catalysts to form branched allylic substitution products. The bulk of the recent literature on iridium-catalyzed allylic substitution has focused on catalysts derived from [Ir(COD)Cl]2 and phosphoramidite ligands. These complexes catalyze the formation of enantiomerically enriched allylic amines, allylic ethers, and (3-branched y-8 unsaturated carbonyl compounds. The latest generation and most commonly used of these catalysts (Scheme 1) consists of a cyclometalated iridium-phosphoramidite core chelated by 1,5-cyclooctadiene. A fifth coordination site is occupied in catalyst precursors by an additional -phosphoramidite or ethylene. The phosphoramidite that is used to generate the metalacyclic core typically contains one BlNOLate and one bis-arylethylamino group on phosphorus. 

In an earlier report, Maitlis et al. showed that 1 could be easily converted into a hydrido complex [Cp lrHCl]2 (2) under ambient conditions by treatment with alcohol and a weak base (Scheme 5.1) [19], probably accompanied by the formation of carbonyl compounds. This fact means that the hydrogen atom in an alcohol can be rapidly transferred to the iridium center in the form of a hydride but then, if the hydride on the iridium could be re-transferred to another hydrogen acceptor, a new catalytic system using alcohols as substrates might be realized. In fact, a wide variety of Cp Ir complex-catalyzed hydrogen transfer systems using alcohols as substrates, and based on the above hypothesis, have been reported to date [20]. 

As expected, cyclohexanone hydrogenation performed in an IL has a longer reaction time than in solventless conditions. Where using iridium nanoparticles dispersed in an IL, the biphasic hydrogenation of cyclohexanone could be performed at least 15 times, without any considerable loss in catalytic activity this contrasted with the use of nanoparticles in solventless conditions, when the catalytic activity begins to decHne after the third cycle. The standard experimental conditions established for the hydrogenation of other carbonyl compounds were 75 °C, 4atm of H2 and a molar substrate Ir ratio of 250. 

Iridium nanopartides also catalyze the hydrogenation of benzyhnethylketone, with high selectivity in reduction of the aromatic ring (92% selectivity in saturated ketone, 8% in saturated alcohol at 97% benzylmethylketone conversion). This preferential coordination of the aromatic ring can be attributed to steric effects that make carbonyl coordination difficult. Therefore, metallic iridium nanoparticles prepared in ILs may serve as active catalysts for the hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds in both solventless and biphasic conditions. 

Catalysts prepared from iridium neutral binary carbonyl compounds and several supports have been studied extensively. Small Ir (x = 4, 6) clusters supported on several oxides and caged in zeolite, and their characterization by EXAFS, have been prepared [159, 179, 180, 194-196]. The nuclearity of the resulting metallic clusters has been related with their catalytic behavior in olefin hydrogenation reactions [197]. This reaction is structure insensitive, which means that the rate of the reac-hon does not depend on the size of the metallic particle. Usually, the metallic parhcles are larger than 1 nm and consequently they have bulk-like metallic behavior. However, if the size of the particles is small enough to lose their bulk-like metallic behavior, the rate of the catalytic reaction can depend on the size of the metal cluster frame used as catalyst. 

In the past, this field has been dominated by ruthenium, rhodium and iridium catalysts with extraordinary activities and furthermore superior enantioselectivities however, some investigations were carried out with iron catalysts. Early efforts were reported on the successful use of hydridocarbonyliron complexes HFcm(CO) as reducing reagent for a, P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, dienes and C=N double bonds, albeit complexes were used in stoichiometric amounts [7]. The first catalytic approach was presented by Marko et al. on the reduction of acetone in the presence of Fe3(CO)12 or Fe(CO)5 [8]. In this reaction, the hydrogen is delivered by water under more drastic reaction conditions (100 bar, 100 °C). Addition of NEt3 as co-catalyst was necessary to obtain reasonable yields. The authors assumed a reaction of Fe(CO)5 with hydroxide ions to yield H Fe(CO)4 with liberation of carbon dioxide since basic conditions are present and exclude the formation of molecular hydrogen via the water gas shift reaction. H Fe(CO)4 is believed to be the active catalyst, which transfers the hydride to the acceptor. The catalyst presented displayed activity in the reduction of several ketones and aldehydes (Scheme 4.1) [9]. 

The catalytic 1,6-addition of arylboronic acids to electron-deficient dienes, such as ( )-MeCH=CHCH=CHCOMe, was realized by use of an iridium catalyst. High yields of the corresponding 5-arylated carbonyl compounds were obtained with perfect 1,6-selectivity.249... 

Alkylidene carbonyl iridium complexes, reactions, 7, 275 Alkylidene compounds, NLO properties, 12, 121 Alkylidene-containing complexes, in molybdenum complexes, Schrock-type complexes, 5, 524 a-Alkylidene cyclic carbonyl compounds, isomerization,... 

Unlike cobalt and rhodium, the chemistry of polynuclear iridium carbonyl derivatives has not been studied in detail (15a). Reduction of Ir4(CO)i2 under carbon monoxide with K2C03 in methanol gives the yellow tetranuclear hydride derivative [Ir4(CO)nH], whereas under nitrogen the brown dianion [Ir8(CO)2o]2- has been isolated as a tetraalkylam-monium salt (97). It has been suggested that the structure of the dianion could result from the linking of two iridium tetrahedra, although its formulation so far is based only on elemental analyses. Clearly such an interesting compound deserves further chemical and structural characterization. 

Delepine and Horeau also compared the activating effects of the six platinum group metals on Raney Ni in the hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds. Osmium, iridium, and platinum were the most effective, ruthenium and rhodium followed them, and palladium was the least effective.66... 

---