Lactones Molybdenum carbonyl

Carbonyl Compounds. Cychc ketals and acetals (dioxolanes) are produced from reaction of propylene oxide with ketones and aldehydes, respectively. Suitable catalysts iaclude stannic chloride, quaternary ammonium salts, glycol sulphites, and molybdenum acetyl acetonate or naphthenate (89—91). Lactones come from Ph4Sbl-cataly2ed reaction with ketenes (92). 

Scheme 6.47 Palladium-catalyzed carbonylation reactions yielding acids, esters, and lactones using molybdenum hexacarbonyl as a solid source of carbon monoxide.

When sodium ethoxide is used in place of sodium hydroxide in the carbonylation reaction of benzyl halides with dicobalt octacarbonyl, ethyl esters are produced instead of the acids [15], Esters are also produced directly from iodoalkanes through their reaction with molybdenum hexacarbonyl in the presence of tetra-/i-butylammo-nium fluoride [16]. Di-iodoalkanes produce lactones [16]. The reaction can be made catalytic in the hexacarbonyl by the addition of methyl formate [16]. t-Butyl arylacetic esters are produced in moderate yield (40-60%) under phase-transfer catalytic conditions in the palladium promoted carbonylation reaction with benzyl chlorides [17]. 

As part of a study of the reactions of metallacyclic y-ketovinyl complexes of molybdenum and tungsten with acetylenes, directed toward the synthesis of complexed -/-lactones, Stone has reported92 the isolation of several vinyl-ketene complexes. When complex 72 was heated with 2-butyne, one molecule of the alkyne was incorporated into the complex with concomitant carbonylation. X-ray analysis of the product (73) has shown unequivocally that the C-l to C-4 vinylketene fragment is bonded in a planar, rj4-configu-ration. In contrast to the thermal reaction, ultraviolet irradiation of 72 or 74 in the presence of 2-butyne affords the complexes 75 and 76, respectively, where the lone carbonyl remaining after alkyne insertion had been replaced by a third molecule of the alkyne. 

Molybdenum-peroxo compounds have been shown to achieve a variety of selective oxidations they a-hydroxylate enolizable ketones, presumably via epoxidation of the enolate (equation 27) 163 they cause Baeyer-Villiger lactonization of cyclic ketones, probably via the formation of five-membered trioxametallacycles (equation 28) 164 they oxidize alcohols to carbonyl compounds... 

One of the broadest and historically most important areas of dimetal chemistry is that of the simple carbonyl complexes (see Carbonyl Complexes of the Transition Metals). As mentioned above, Co2(CO)s, Fe2(CO)9, and Mn2(CO)io were among the first metal-metal bonded complexes characterized. To this day, these complexes continue to be involved in new chemistry, for example, Co2(CO)g found recent use in a one-pot synthesis of tricyclic 5-lactones .In the case of molybdenum, the zerovalent carbonyl is monomeric however, reduction gives a dinuclear metal carbonyl dianion in which the metal is in the [-1] oxidation state (equation 6). 

---