Iron imine complexes

A number of ingenious methods have been described for the chiral synthesis of a-amino-acids. Treatment of the readily available chiral iron-imine complex (1) with ben2yl bromide, followed by drogenation, gave phenylalanine (Scheme 3) starting from the more abundant diastereoisomer... 

The oxidation of /(-amino-substituted iron acyl complexes which are prepared via condensation reactions of iron-acyl enolates and imines or iminium ions26,5 -47-54 generates /(-lactams 32,33,61. Brief treatment with bromine in dichloromethane at low temperature is the usual procedure. 

The aliphatic N4 ligand triethylenetetramine =l,4,7,10-triazadecane (trien) is strongly basic and forms only high-spin complexes with iron(II). If the two terminal amino groups are replaced by imine functions such as pyridine (1) the ligand field strength is increased sufficiently that low-spin or spin crossover iron(II) complexes can be made. 

Compound 79 reacts with 0(CH2)4 and NCMe in the presence of CFsSOsMe, like the iron complex 11 and the molybdenum and tungsten complexes 45 and 46, to give zwitterionic compounds [2-NO-2-PEt3-7-L-c/ow-2,l-CoCBioHio] [L = 0(CH2)4 (83), NCMe (84)]. Interestingly, the acetonitrile reaction gave in addition to 84 small amounts of the imine complex [7- N(Me) = C(H)Me -2-NO-2-PEt3-c/oio-2,l-CoCBioHio] (85), a product related to the iron and nickel compounds 34 and 78, respectively. The latter pair were the only products when 11 and 75, respectively, were... 

Complexation has been utilized to control site selectivity. The iron tricarbonyl complex 216 reacts with nitrile imines only at the cyclobutene double bond, whereas the uncomplexed analogue reacts at all three sites (117). 

Curtis-type macrocyclic complexes are sufficiently stable to undergo a variety of oxidation and reduction processes to yield a range of complexes containing from zero to four imine linkages (Scheme 10).40 66 84 85 96 The oxidative dehydrogenation process is metal-ion dependent, as illustrated by the alternative ligand structure developed from the iron(II) complex (equation 14) 97 9S... 

The generation of four-membered ring systems can be accomplished by a cycloaddition process under photochemical conditions or with special substrates under thermal conditions. Iron-vinylidene complexes belong to such a class of special substrates where a thermal [2 + 2]-cycloaddition is possible. If imines are used, a hetero-[2 + 2]-cycloaddition with an iron-vinylidene complex leads to an iron-carbene complex attached to an azetidine ring system, as reported by Barrett and coworkers (Scheme 9.20) [46, 47]. The oxidation of these iron-carbene complexes leads to [3-lactams 27. Interestingly, the application of 2-thiazolines generates penam... 

In general, the greater the thermodynamic stability of the imine complex, the smaller the tendency towards hydrolysis. The hydrolysis of the imine formed from aniline and benz-aldehyde is enhanced 100,000 times in the presence of copper(n). The importance of the electron configuration of the metal ion is seen in the reactions of this same ligand the imine is stabilised with respect to hydrolysis on co-ordination to a d6 iron(n) centre. This may be partially ascribed to the effective back-donation from the low-spin d6 centre (Fig. 4-24). In this case, the free imine is reasonably stable to hydrolysis in the absence of metal ions. 

The position of the equilibrium between imine and carbonyl may be perturbed by interaction with a metal ion. We saw in Chapter 2 how back-donation of electrons from suitable orbitals of a metal ion may stabilise an imine by occupancy of the jc level. It is possible to form very simple imines which cannot usually be obtained as the free ligands by conducting the condensation of amine and carbonyl compounds in the presence of a metal ion. Reactions which result in the formation of imines are considered in this chapter even in cases where there is no evidence for prior co-ordination of the amine nucleophile to a metal centre. Although low yields of the free ligand may be obtained from the metal-free reaction, the ease of isolation of the metal complex, combined with the higher yields, make the metal-directed procedure the method of choice in many cases. An example is presented in Fig. 5-47. In the absence of a metal ion, only low yields of the diimine are obtained from the reaction of diacetyl with methylamine. When the reaction is conducted in the presence of iron(n) salts, the iron(n) complex of the diimine (5.23) is obtained in good yield. 

Figure 5-47. The condensation of diacetyl with methylamine in the presence of iron(n) yields the iron(n) complex of the conjugated diimine. In the absence of metal ion, little of the imine is obtained. A number of factors are of importance in this reaction, including the strong back-bonding between the 7t-acceptor diimine and the low-spin d6 metal centre.

Similar effects of intra-ligand substitution on the ligand field strength have been observed on iron (II) complexes with l,10-phenanthroline-2-carbaldehyde imines (phen-2-CH=NR) (VI)12S). The only complex which has been found to exhibit spin crossover (gradual in this case) is the tetrafluoroborate with R = tertiary butyl (Bul)... 

The chemistry of iron vinylidene complexes is dominated by the electrophilicity of the carbon atom adjacent to the iron organometallic unit. While addition of water leads to an acyl complex (i.e., the reverse of the dehydration shown in equation 10), addition of an alcohol leads to a vinyl ether complex. Similarly, other iron vinyl complexes can be prepared by the addition of thiolate, hydride, or an organocuprate (Scheme 33). " The nucleophilic addition of imines gave enaminoiron intermediates that could be further elaborated into cyclic aminocarbenes. This methodology has been used to provide access to /3-lactams and ultimately penicillin analogs, and good diastereoselectivities were observed (6 1-15 1) (Scheme 34). 04 Iso, vinylidene complexes are intermediates in cyclizations of alkynyl irons with substituted ketenes, acid chlorides, and related electrophiles an example is shown (equation 11). These cyclizations led to the formation of a series of isolable and characterizable cyclic vinyl iron complexes. 

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