Iridium complexes alkene/alkyne reactions

Insertion of aUcynes into aromatic C-H bonds has been achieved by iridium complexes. Shibata and coworkers found that the cationic complex [Ir(COD)2]BF4 catalyzes the hydroarylation of internal alkynes with aryl ketones in the presence of BINAP (24) [111]. The reaction selectively produces ort/to-substituted alkenated-aryl products. Styrene and norbomene were also found to undergo hydroarylation under similar condition. [Cp IrCl2]2 catalyzes aromatization of benzoic acid with two equivalents of internal alkyne to form naphthalene derivatives via decarboxylation in the presence of Ag2C03 as an oxidant (25) [112]. 

In 2008, Shibata and co-workers reported a cationic iridium bidentate phosphine complex catalyzed C—H bond alkylation reaction of 2-methy-lacetophenone with alkynes and alkenes (Scheme 5.61). Compared with alkynes, the use of styrenes as acceptors requires the weakly coordinated tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]borate (BARF) as a counteranion of the iridium complex and a higher temperature to achieve good yields. When a norbornene was used as the acceptor, the sole example of an asymmetric ortho C—H bond alkylation product 175 was obtained in 58% yield and 70% ee. 

As an alternative, iridium complexes show exciting catalytic activities in various organic transformations for C-C bond formation. Iridium complexes have been known to be effective catalysts for hydrogenation [1—5] and hydrogen transfers [6-27], including in enantioselective synthesis [28-47]. The catalytic activity of iridium complexes also covers a wide range for dehydrogenation [48-54], metathesis [55], hydroamination [56-61], hydrosilylation [62], and hydroalkoxylation reactions [63] and has been employed in alkyne-alkyne and alkyne - alkene cyclizations and allylic substitution reactions [64-114]. In addition, Ir-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of a,P-unsaturated nitriles with nitrone was reported [115]. 

Iridium complex-catalyzed cyclization of an Af-arylcarbamoyl chloride with an alkyne has been reported by Tsuji and coworkers [153]. In a typical example, Af-methyl-Af-phenylcarbamoyl was reacted with 5-decyne and a catalytic amount of [IrCl(cod)]2 (2.5mol%) and additional cod (30mol%) in refluxing o-xylene for 20 h to give 3,4-dimethyl-l-methyl-2-quinolone in 92% yield (Scheme 11.5). During this reaction, no indole product formed by decarbonylation was observed. This reaction is proposed to proceed by oxidative addition of Af-arylcarbamoyl chloride to Ir(I), giving a carbamoyl chloroiridium(III) species. Subsequently, the formation of a five-membered iridacycle by ortho-aryl C-H activation followed by insertion of the alkene and reductive elimination produces the 2-quinolone derivative. 

While testing two different catalysts, Tanaka found that cationic rhodium in a binary system (cationic Rh(I)/H8-binap) is effective in chemo- and regioselective addition reactions of terminal alkynes with acetylenedicarboxylate to form 1,2,3,4-tetra-substituted benzenes with excellent yield of 99% [9, 44, 45]. It is also important to note that this reaction is tolerant to a large number of functional groups, including alkenes, alkyl halides, and esters. Although cationic iridium complex Ir(I) did not give a positive result in the cycloaddition reactions, the authors showed that the catalytic system with neutral Ir(I) can facilitate cycloaromatization of dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate and terminal alkynes [45]. 

A breakthrough in the study of iridium-catalyzed reactions was reported by Crabtree in 1977 regarding the hydrogenation reactions of alkenes [38, 39]. Only recently, iridium complexes have been utilized on alkynes for other reactions than the hydrogenation. 

The syntheses and spectroscopic and electrochemical characterization of the rhodium and iridium porphyrin complexes (Por)IVI(R) and (Por)M(R)(L) have been summarized in three review articles.The classical syntheses involve Rh(Por)X with RLi or RMgBr, and [Rh(Por) with RX. In addition, reactions of the rhodium and iridium dimers have led to a wide variety of rhodium a-bonded complexes. For example, Rh(OEP)]2 reacts with benzyl bromide to give benzyl rhodium complexes, and with monosubstituted alkenes and alkynes to give a-alkyl and fT-vinyl products, respectively. More recent synthetic methods are summarized below. Although the development of iridium porphyrin chemistry has lagged behind that of rhodium, there have been few surprises and reactions of [IrfPorih and lr(Por)H parallel those of the rhodium congeners quite closely.Selected structural data for rr-bonded rhodium and iridium porphyrin complexes are collected in Table VI, and several examples are shown in Fig. 7. ... 

After extensive screening of various aldehydes to optimize the reaction conditions, it was found that aromatic aldehydes were able to serve as a carbon monoxide source, in which the electronic nature of the aldehydes is responsible for their ability to transfer CO efficiently [24]. Consequently, aldehydes bearing electron-withdrawing substituents are more effective than those bearing electron-donating substituents, with pentafluoro-benzaldehyde providing optimal reactivity. Interestingly, for all substrates tested the reaction is void of any complications from hydroacylation of either the alkene or alkyne of the enyne. Iridium and ruthenium complexes, which are known to decarboxylate aldehydes and catalyze the PK reaction, demonstrated inferior efficiency as compared to... 

The Pauson-Khand reaction is a well-known method for preparing cydopente-nones by the [2 + 2 + 1] cycloaddition reaction of alkyne, alkene and CO. While reactions using stoichiometric amounts of Co2(CO)g were initially examined, catalytic versions with cobalt, titanium, rhodium, iridium, and ruthenium complexes have recently been developed. Whilst the intramolecular version is rather easy, the inter-molecular version is a very difficult problem that has not yet been solved [76]. 

It is tempting to speculate that only for the dinuclear complexes of iridium is there initial formation of a dihydrido-complex, which subsequently reacts with an alkene to form an alkyl intermediate, or with an alkyne to form an alkenyl intermediate. If such is the case, the activity of dinuclear rhodium complexes must depend on initial formation of an alkyne or alkene complex, which would then react with hydrogen. There exists some evidence for such a scheme. The successive hydrogenation of alkynes and alkenes " suggests that activation of an alkene is inhibited by an alkyne, probably by preferential coordination of the latter. Further, complexes (VII, X = H) or (IX) do not alone react with hydrogen, but do so after reaction with an alkyne (acetylene or phenylactylene). ... 

As discussed in Chapter 9, the insertion of olefins and alk)nes into metal-amido complexes is limited to a few examples. Such insertion reactions are proposed to occur as part of the mechanism of the hydroamination of norbomene catalyzed by an iridium(I) complex and as part of the hydroamination of alkenes and alkynes catalyzed by lanthanide and actinide metal complexes. This reaction was clearly shown to occur with the iridium(I) amido complex formed by oxidative addition of aniline, and this insertion process is presented in Chapter 9. The mechanism of the most active Ir(I) catalyst system for this process involving added fluoride is imknown. 

It has been shown that the stereochemistry of the hydrosilylation of 1-aUcynes giving 1-silyl-l-alkenes depends on the catalysts or promoters used. For example, the reactions under radical conditions give the cis-product predominantly via trans-addition , while the platinum-catalyzed reactions afford the trans-product via exclusive cts-addition. In the reactions catalyzed by rhodium complexes, thermodynamically unfavorable c/s-1-silyl-l-alkenes are formed via apparent trans-addition as the major or almost exclusive product. Since the trans-addition of HSiEts to 1-alkynes catalyz by RhCl(PPh3)3 was first reported in 1974 , there have been controversy and dispute on the mechanism of this mysterious trans-addition that is vray rare in transition-metal-catalyzed addition reactions to aUtynes. Recently, iridium 4i6 mthenium complexes were also found to give the ds-product with extremely high selectivity (vide supra). 

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