Kinetics metal carbene complexes

The interaction between catalyst and diazo compound may be initialized by electrophilic attack of the catalyst metal at the diazo carbon, with simultaneous or subsequent loss of N2, whereupon a metal-carbene complex (415) or the product of carbene insertion into a metal/ligand bond (416) or its ionic equivalent (417) are formed. This is outlined in a simplified manner in Scheme 43, which does not speculate on the kinetics of such a sequence, nor on the possible interconversion of 415 and 416/417 or the primarily formed Lewis acid — Lewis base adducts. 

The metal-carbene chain-mechanism concept (Chauvin mechanism) has been strengthened by many studies of mechanistic details. The origin of the initial metal-carbene complex has received considerable attention, as has the metallocyclobutane-alkyUdene interconversion. Spectroscopic, kinetic, and... 

Note I Metathesis polymerization is most often metal-catalyzed and the kinetic-chain carriers alternate between metal carbene complexes and melallacyclobutanes or metal carbyne complexes and metallacyclobutenes. 

The olefin binding site is presumed to be cis to the carbene and trans to one of the chlorides. Subsequent dissociation of a phosphine paves the way for the formation of a 14-electron metallacycle G which upon cycloreversion generates a pro ductive intermediate [ 11 ]. The metallacycle formation is the rate determining step. The observed reactivity pattern of the pre-catalyst outlined above and the kinetic data presently available support this mechanistic picture. The fact that the catalytic activity of ruthenium carbene complexes 1 maybe significantly enhanced on addition of CuCl to the reaction mixture is also very well in line with this dissociative mechanism [11] Cu(I) is known to trap phosphines and its presence may therefore lead to a higher concentration of the catalytically active monophosphine metal fragments F and G in solution. 

Referring to the ADMET mechanism discussed previously in this chapter, it is evident that both intramolecular complexation as well as intermolecular re-bond formation can occur with respect to the metal carbene present on the monomer unit. If intramolecular complexation is favored, then a chelated complex, 12, can be formed that serves as a thermodynamic well in this reaction process. If this complex is sufficiently stable, then no further reaction occurs, and ADMET polymer condensation chemistry is obviated. If in fact the chelate complex is present in equilibrium with re complexation leading to a polycondensation route, then the net result is a reduction in the rate of polymerization as will be discussed later in this chapter. Finally, if 12 is not kinetically favored because of the distant nature of the metathesizing olefin bond, then its effect is minimal, and condensation polymerization proceeds efficiently. Keeping this in perspective, it becomes evident that a wide variety of functionalized polyolefins can be synthesized by using controlled monomer design, some of which are illustrated in Fig. 2. 

The Dotz reaction mechanism has received further support from kinetic and theoretical studies. An early kinetic investigation [37] and the observation that the reaction of the metal carbene with the alkyne is supressed in the presence of external carbon monoxide [38] indicated that the rate-determining step is a reversible decarbonylation of the original carbene complex. Additional evidence for the Dotz mechanistic hyphotesis has been provided by extended Hiickel molecular orbital [23, 24] and quantum chemical calculations [25],... 

The expected intermediate for the metathesis reaction of a metal alkylidene complex and an alkene is a metallacyclobutane complex. Grubbs studied titanium complexes and he found that biscyclopentadienyl-titanium complexes are active as metathesis catalysts, the stable resting state of the catalyst is a titanacyclobutane, rather than a titanium alkylidene complex [15], A variety of metathesis reactions are catalysed by the complex shown in Figure 16.8, although the activity is moderate. Kinetic and labelling studies were used to demonstrate that this reaction proceeds through the carbene intermediate. 

Rate-determining step, hydroformylation, 163 Reactivity, enantiomers, 286 Recognition, enantiomers, 278 Reduction and oxidation, 5 Reductive coupling, dissolving metal, 288 Reductive elimination, 5, 111 Resolution. See Kinetic resolution Rhenium-carbene complexes, 288 Rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation, 17, 352 amino acid synthesis, 18, 352 BINAP, 20... 

The preferences of the various pathways are dependent on the catalyst used, specifically the electronic and steric factors involved. The electronic contribution is based on the preference of the metallacycle to have the electron-donating alkyl groups at either the a or the carbon of ftie metallacycle [23]. The steric factors involved in the approach of the olefin to the metal carbene also determine the re-giochemistry of the metallacyclobutane formed. These factors include both steric repulsion of the olefin and carbene substituents from each other and from the ancillary ligands of the metal complex. Paths (b), (c), and (e) in Scheme 6.10 are important to productive ADMET. The relative rates of pathways (c) and (e) will determine the kinetic amount of cis and trans double bonds in the polymer chain. Flowever, in some cases a more thermodynamic ratio of cis to trans olefin isomers is attained after long reaction times, presumably by a trans-metathesis olefin equilibration mechanism [31] (Scheme 6.11). 

Because of the extraordinary strength of the carbon-fluorine bond, transition metal-mediated activation of fluoroalkanes and arenes is not easy to achieve. Nevertheless, activation of the C-F bond in highly electron-deficient compounds such as 2,4,6-trifluoropyrimidine, pentafluoropyridine, or hexafluorobenzene is possible with stoichiometric amounts of bis(triethylphosphano) nickel(O) [101] (Scheme 2.45). More recently Herrmann and coworkers [102] have described a variant of the Kumada-Corriu cross-coupling reaction [103] between fluorobenzene and aryl Grignard compounds which uses catalytic amounts of nickel carbene complexes. Hammett analysis of the relative kinetic rate constants indicated that the reaction proceeds via initial oxidative addition of the fluoroaromatic reactant to the nickel(O) species. 

The thrust of this chapter deals with reactions of Fischer carbene complexes that have been the subject of kinetic and/or thermodynamic studies. The number of these is relatively limited. They include the reactions of equations (1) and (4), proton transfers that generate carbanions such as 5 (see equation 2), reactions at the metal center such as the loss or exchange of ligands as well as rearrangement reactions. 

It should be noted that a key element in most of these reactions is that they are initiated by the coordination of the substrate to the metal.Since Fischer carbene complexes are coordinatively saturated, the coordination of the substrate needs to be preceded by the loss of a ligand (see, e.g., equation 8, S = substrate). This ligand loss can be initiated thermally as well as photochemically. This loss of CO is usually the rate-limiting step which is a major reason why kinetic experiments give little information about the complex steps that follow the initial ligand loss. 

We note that the rate and equilibrium constants depend very little on the metal. This finding is reminiscent of the situation with phosphine addition (equation 51) where the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters are very similar for the Cr and W carbene complexes (Table 8). 

The metal protonated adducts (100) could not be detected directly because they are very acidic (p < ) This means they cannot be generated at the required pH because the thiolate ions are protonated under these conditions and the corresponding thiols are not reactive enough to add to the carbene complex. However there is kinetic evidence for 100. When 99 that has been generated at high pH is reacted with HCl, the pseudo-first-order rate constant for the conversion of 99 back to 98 shows a non-linear dependence on an+, as shown in Fig. 5 for some representative examples. This dependence is consistent with H -catalyzed... 

The subsequent steps of the reaction are too fast in order to allow further kinetic investigation. A previously proposed 16-electron chromacyclobutene intermediate arising from a formal [2-i-2]-cycloaddition of the alkyne ligand aross the metal-carbene bond was later discarded as a result of theoretical studies which support a direct insertion of the alkyne into the metal-carbene bond to generate an 18-electron valence-isomer, the rj -vinylcarbene complex D. [48] A related species III has been isolated from the reaction of an aminocarbene complex. [46] Subsequent insertion of a carbonyl ligand leads to an rj -yinylketene complex E, of which structural analogues as enaminoketene complex IV have been synthesized. 

Examination of the MBs of the n1 (C) coordination mode XII indicates weakening of the C-N2 bond [15, 16], the r 1 (C)-coordinated diazoalkane must thus be kinetically unstable and readily eliminates dinitrogen molecule to give the corresponding carbene complex. Moreover, it is known that the carbon-nitrogen bond of diazoalkane is readily cleaved upon interaction with a Lewis acid such as BF3, etc. The Lewis acidity at the metal coordination centre probably causes similar a-acid-base... 

Transition metal salts or complexes are known to catalyze effectively the cyclopropanation of olefins with diazoalkanes. Asymmetric synthesis with chiral copper catalysts (Nozaki et ai, 1966, 1968 Noyori et al., 1969 Moser, 1969), as well as a detailed kinetic study (Salomon and Kochi, 1973), has suggested the intervention of copper-carbene complexes as reactive intermediates. Recently synthesis of crysanthemic acid (CCXXXIV) (R = H) with high optical yield (60-70 %) has been achieved by applying this asymmetric catalysis (Aratani et al., 1975). The camphorglyoxime-cobalt(I) complex is also effective for the enantioselective reaction (Tatsuno et al., 1974). 

Isocyanides when bonded to a transition metal have a strong tendency to react with amines or alcohols to form carbene complexes. Kinetic studies on the... 

The species responsible for alkyne polymerization, which is kinetically more facile than eyelotrimerization since only a small fraction of the added alkyne is converted to benzenes, is not yet known. Carbene-metal complexes, both mononuclear (54) and binuclear (y2-CR2) complexes (55,56), have been shown to act as alkyne polymerization initiators and several years ago it was shown that terminal alkynes and alcohols can react to give alkoxycarbene ligands (57) As yet, we have no evidence... 

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