Iron carbonyl carbene complexes

The four-coordinate sqnare planar iron(n) porphyrins discussed above are not only of great valne in heme protein model chemistry, but also in chemical applications, since they undergo a wealth of ligand addition reactions. For example it has been shown that TPPFe complexes are active catalysts for important carbon transfer reactions in organic chemistry and are found to catalyze the stereoselective cyclopropanation of aUcenes, olefin formation from diazoalkanes, and the efficient and selective olefination of aldehydes and other carbonyl compounds. The active species in these carbon transfer reactions are presumably iron porphyrin carbene complexes. " It was also found that ferrous hemin anchored to Ti02 thin films reduce organic halides, which can pose serious health problems and are of considerable environmental concern because of their prevalence in groundwater. ... 

Recently, FT-IR and theoretical analysis of iron porphyrin carbene complexes revealed a possible paramagnetic intermediate carbene state during the reaction of ethyl diazoacetate with Fe(TPP). Focusing on the C = O stretching frequency in the carbene iron complex, a decrease of the value is observed, in comparison with diamagnetic carbene complexes since the radical on the C(carbene) delocalizes over the a-carbonyl group [78]. All isolated axial iron carbene complexes are, however, diamagnetic. 

The activation of silylene complexes is induced both photochemically or by addition of a base, e.g. pyridine. A similar base-induced cleavage is known from the chemistry of carbene complexes however, in this case the carbenes so formed dimerize to give alkenes. Finally, a silylene cleavage can also be achieved thermally. Melting of the compounds 4-7 in high vacuum yields the dimeric complexes 48-51 with loss of HMPA. The dimers, on the other hand, can be transformed into polysilanes and iron carbonyl clusters above 120 °C. In all cases, the resulting polymers have been identified by spectroscopic methods. 

Transition metal complexes which react with diazoalkanes to yield carbene complexes can be catalysts for diazodecomposition (see Section 4.1). In addition to the requirements mentioned above (free coordination site, electrophi-licity), transition metal complexes can catalyze the decomposition of diazoalkanes if the corresponding carbene complexes are capable of transferring the carbene fragment to a substrate with simultaneous regeneration of the original complex. Metal carbonyls of chromium, iron, cobalt, nickel, molybdenum, and tungsten all catalyze the decomposition of diazomethane [493]. Other related catalysts are (CO)5W=C(OMe)Ph [509], [Cp(CO)2Fe(THF)][BF4] [510,511], and (CO)5Cr(COD) [52,512]. These compounds are sufficiently electrophilic to catalyze the decomposition of weakly nucleophilic, acceptor-substituted diazoalkanes. 

The cyclopropanation reactions of the cationic iron carbene complexes occur most efficiently with alkenes of normal electronic characteristics. Veiy electron deficient alkenes such as a,(3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds are veiy poor substrates. Veiy electron rich alkenes such as enol ethers react rapidly, but the expected cyclopropanes generally cannot be isolated if they are indeed formed, they apparently undergo further reactions, peihaps promoted by the metallic species present in the reaction mixtures. 

Cyclic amino-carbenes, in molybdenum carbonyls, 5, 457 Cyclic bis(phosphine) dichlorides, with iron carbonyls, 6, 48 Cyclic carbenes, as gold atom ligands, 2, 289 Cyclic carbometallation, zirconium complexes, 10, 276 Cyclic carbozirconation characteristics, 10, 276 intermolecular reactions, 10, 278 intramolecular reactions, 10, 278 Cyclic dinuclear ylides, and gold , 2, 276 Cyclic 1,2-diols, intramolecular coupling to, 11, 51 Cyclic enones, diastereoselective cuprate additions, 9, 515 Cyclic esters, ring-opening polymerization, via lanthanide catalysis, 4, 145 Cyclic ethers... 

Further restrictions to the scope of the present article concern certain molecules which can in one or more of their canonical forms be represented as carbenes, e.g. carbon monoxide such stable molecules, which do not normally show carbenoid reactivity, will not be considered. Nor will there be any discussion of so-called transition metal-carbene complexes (see, for example, Fischer and Maasbol, 1964 Mills and Redhouse, 1968 Fischer and Riedel, 1968). Carbenes in these complexes appear to be analogous to carbon monoxide in transition-metal carbonyls. Carbenoid reactivity has been observed only in the case of certain iridium (Mango and Dvoretzky, 1966) and iron complexes (Jolly and Pettit, 1966), but detailed examination of the nature of the actual reactive intermediate, that is to say, whether the complexes react as such or first decompose to give free carbenes, has not yet been reported. A chromium-carbene complex has been suggested as a transient intermediate in the reduction of gfem-dihalides by chromium(II) sulphate because of structural effects on the reaction rate and because of the structure of the reaction products, particularly in the presence of unsaturated compounds (Castro and Kray, 1966). The subject of carbene-metal complexes reappears in Section IIIB. 

Similarly, reactions of organomagnesium compounds with metal carbonyls have not been found useful for synthesizing carbene complexes. On the other hand, reactions of organomagnesium compounds with iron... 

By reaction of cationic carbonyl complexes with lithium carbanions, neutral acyl complexes are prepared. Whereas treatment of [> -CpFe(CO)3]BF4 with (a) PhLi gives the expected > -CpFe(CO)2 [C(0)Ph] in 80% yield, with (b) MeLi only traces of > -CpFe(CO)2 [C(0)Me] can be detected . This complex and other phosphane-substituted acyl compounds of the type f -CpM(CO)L[C(0)Me] [M = Fe, Ru L = CO, PPh3, P(hex)j], as well as >/ -CpMo(CO)2P(hex)3[C(0)Me] (prepared by different routes), are protonated with and alkylated with [R3 0]BF4 reversibly, yielding cationic hydroxy- and alkoxy(methyl)carbene complexes, respectively . The formation of the ( + )- and ( —)-acetyl complex / -CpFe(C0)(PPh3)[C(0)Me] from the ( + )-and ( —)-conformers of optically active > -CpFe(C0XPPh3)[C(0)0-menthyl] and MeLi occurs with inversion of configuration at the asymmetric iron atom . 

Iron carbonyl complex formation of 1,2,3-selenadiazoles has been studied by Rees and co-workers. Nitrogen extrusion by di-iron nonacarbonyl gave a mixture of two isomeric carbene iron complexes 163 and 164. The... 

The reactivity of carbonyls of Cr, Mo, and W with alkyl lithium is somewhat lower than that of nickel and iron carbonyls. The most interesting reaction of these metal carbonyls, found and studied extensively by Fischer and his coworkers, is the formation of carbene complexes 98-"). Phenyl or methyl lithium adds readily to W(CO)6 at room temperature to form carbonylate complexes. The tetramethyl ammonium salt of the complex is treated with acid and then with diazomethane to give a neutral complex whose structure was found to be that of a carbene complex. In this way a series of carbene complexes of Cr, Mo, and Mn were synthesized. 

The reactivity of carbene-metal complexes, amongst others the reactivity with respect to alkenes and alkynes, has been reviewed by Dotz Just like free carbenes the coordinated carbenes add to triple bonds to give cyclopropene derivatives. Other reaction products, however, are also possible. For instance, the carbene ligand of chromium complex 23 reacts with diphenylacetylene to a mixture of products, including naphthalene derivative 24 and furan derivative 25 (equation 18). A carbonyl ligand has participated. Molecular orbital calculations by Hofmann and Hammerle " on this system reveal that the reaction would pass through an y-vinylcarbene type of complex (26) instead of through a planar chromacyclobutene 27. The subsequent steps to yield either phenol or furan could involve vinylketene 28, but this still is a matter of debate. Similar, but more selective, furan syntheses have been observed for carbene complexes based on iron and cobalt. ... 

The heptanuclear iron carbonyl cluster [Fe3(CO)u(/u-H)]2-Fe(DMF)4 (178) acted as an efficient catalyst in the reduction of carboxamides by l,2-bis(dimethylsilyl)benzene in toluene to the corresponding amines in high yields. Several tertiary and secondary amides including a sterically crowded amide were also reduced smoothly A review of the development of optically active cobalt complex catalysts for enan-tioselective synthetic reactions has addressed the applications of ketoiminatocobalt(II) complexes such as (5)-MPAC (179) and (5)-AMAC (180), transition-state models for borohydride reduction, halogen-free reduction by cobalt-carbene complexes. 

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