Metal-alkyne complexes insertion reactions

In the process of olefin insertion, also known as carbometalation, the 1,2 migratory insertion of the coordinated carbon-carbon multiple bond into the metal-carbon bond results in the formation of a metal-alkyl or metal-alkenyl complex. The reaction, in which the bond order of the inserted C-C bond is decreased by one unit, proceeds stereoselectively ( -addition) and usually also regioselectively (the more bulky metal is preferentially attached to the less substituted carbon atom. The willingness of alkenes and alkynes to undergo carbometalation is usually in correlation with the ease of their coordination to the metal centre. In the process of insertion a vacant coordination site is also produced on the metal, where further reagents might be attached. Of the metals covered in this book palladium is by far the most frequently utilized in such transformations. 

The Pauson-Khand reaction gives the same product as the group 4 metal-mediated reductive coupling and carbonylation, and both reactions proceed by essentially the same mechanism formation of an alkyne-metal tt complex, insertion of an alkene, insertion of CO, and reductive elimination. Some details differ, however. When an alkyne is added to Co2(CO)g, CO evolves, and an isolable, chromatographable alkyne-Co2(CO)6 complex is obtained. This butterfly complex contains four Co(II)-C bonds, and the Co-Co bond is retained. The formation of the alky n e-C o2 (C O) 6 complex involves the formation of an ordinary tt complex of the alkyne with one Co(0) center, with displacement of CO. The tt complex can be written in its Co(II) cobaltacyclopropene resonance structure. The tt bond of the cobaltacyclopropene is then used to form a tt complex to the other Co center with displacement of another equivalent of CO. This second tt complex can also be written in its cobaltacyclopropene resonance structure. The alkyne-Co2(CO)6 complex has two 18-electron Co(II) centers. 

An example of an alkyne insertion involving an early metal complex is shown in Equation 9.72. The insertion of dimethylacetylene into the permethylscandocene-alkyl complex occurs in a manner similar to that for the insertion of olefins into d metal-alkyl complexes. This reaction gave the product of a cis addition. The competition experiment shows that there is no measurable isotope effect of the a-hydrogen, implying that the modified Green-Rooney mechanism is not followed in this case. 

The insertion reaction between alkenylcarbene complexes and electron-rich alkynes such as 1-alkynylamines (ynamines) leads to mixtures of two regioi-someric cyclopentyl derivatives [78]. Thus, if the insertion occurs on the carbon-metal bond a new aminocarbene complex is produced which evolves to a cyclopentenylmetal derivative. On the other hand, if the insertion reaction occurs on the carbon=carbon double bond of the alkenyl complex, the reaction gives a l-metala-4-amino-l,3,5-triene complex which finally generates a different regioisomer of the cyclopentenylmetal derivative (Scheme 31). 

Complex condensation products are obtained by reaction of the alkyne complex with excess of 3,3-dimethyl-l-butyne, which yields two isomeric products of formulas Ru3(CO)6[HC2C(Me)3-COCH2CMe3][HC2CMe3]2 (125). The X-ray structure of one of those adducts (Fig. 19) shows that both dimerization of two alkyne molecules and the insertion of carbon monoxide into the alkyne metal bonds have occurred. The Ru-Ru distances of 2.820,2.828, and 2.686 A in the ring are of interest. The value of 2.686 A is one of the shortest found in a... 

Generally phenol formation is the major reaction path however, relatively minor modifications to the structure of the carbene complex, the alkyne, or the reaction conditions can dramatically alter the outcome of the reaction [7]. Depending on reaction conditions and starting reactants roughly a dozen different products have been so far isolated, in addition to phenol derivatives [7-12], In particular, there is an important difference between the products of alkyne insertion into amino or alkoxycarbene complexes. The electron richer aminocarbene complexes give indanones 8 as the major product due to failure to incorporate a carbon monoxide ligand from the metal, while the latter tend to favor phenol products 7 (see Figure 2). 

In most of the reactions of heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes with alkynes the first event is insertion of the alkyne into the carbon-metal double bond. If vinylcarbene complexes undergo insertion reactions with alkynes, (1,3-butadien-l-yl)carbene complexes result (Figure 2.27). 

A number of transition metal complexes react with alkenes, alkynes and dienes to afford insertion products (see Volume 4, Part 3). A general problem is that the newly formed carbon-metal bond is usually quite reactive and can undergo a variety of transformations, such as -hydride elimination or another insertion reaction, before being trapped by an electrophile.200 Usually, a better stability and lower reactivity is observed if the first carbometallation step leads to a metallacycle. It is worthy to note that the carbometallation of perfluorinated alkenes and alkynes constitutes a large fraction of the substrates investigated with transition metal complexes.20015... 

The following discussion deals not only with this reaction, but related reactions in which a transition metal complex achieves the addition of carbon monoxide to an alkene or alkyne to yield carboxylic acids and their derivatives. These reactions take place either by the insertion of an alkene (or alkyne) into a metal-hydride bond (equation 1) or into a metal-carboxylate bond (equation 2) as the initial key step. Subsequent steps include carbonyl insertion reactions, metal-acyl hydrogenolysis or solvolysis and metal-carbon bond protonolysis. 

Reactions of alkenes and alkynes that generate a carbon-metal bond by nucleophilic addition to a metal ir-complex and subsequently undergo carbon monoxide insertion to yield a carbonyl product are... 

In certain other systems, there is compelling evidence for the insertion into a metal-caiboxylate complex (equation 37). For example, in the synthesis of a-methylene-y-lactones from alkynic alcohols,70,71 no double bond rearrangement to a butenolide occurs, a reaction shown to take place in the presence of transition metal hydrides. The source of the vinyl proton (deuterium) on the a-methylene group is indeed the alcohol function. Finally, palladium carboxylate complexes containing alkynic (equation 40) or vinyl tails (equation 41) can be isolated and the corresponding insertion reaction can be observed. 

Carbometallation is a term coined for describing chemical processes involving net addition of carbon-metal bonds to carbon-carbon Jt-bonds [1] (Scheme 4.1). It represents a class of insertion reactions. Whereas the term insertion per se does not imply anything chemical, the term carbometallation itself not only explicitly and clearly indicates carbon-metal bond addition but also is readily modifiable to generate many additional, more specific terms such as carboalumination, arylpalladation, and so on. In principle, carbometallation may involve addition of carbon-metal double and triple bonds, that is, carbene- and carbyne-metal bonds, as well as those of metallacycles. Inasmuch as alkene- and alkyne-metal Jt-complexes can also be represented as three-membered metallacycles, their ring expansion reactions via addition to alkenes and alkynes may also be viewed as carbometallation processes (Scheme 4.1). 

The reactions shown in Scheme 1 require activation of the aromatic C-H bond by a metal and subsequent insertion of an alkene or alkyne in the aryl-carbon palladium bond (Chapter III.1.3.2.5). C-H activation has been the topic of many studies since the 1960s and several metal complex systems are known to induce... 

The insertion of olefins and hetero-alkenes and -alkynes (ketones, nitriles) into the M—C bonds of metallacyclopropenes, as present in metal alkyne and particularly benzyne complexes, leads to five-membered metallacycles.193,194 This reaction has widespread synthetic applications 195... 

Sulfur dioxide reacts generally with transition metal alkyl, aryl, and a-allyl complexes to give sulfinate complexes. The reaction, first described in 1964 by Wojcicki and Bibler, resembles well-known insertion reactions of CO, C2F4, SnCl2, tetracyanoethy-lene, and other unsaturated species into metal-alkyl bonds, but there are important stereochemical and mechanistic differences Sulfur dioxide insertion into metal-alkene and metal-alkyne bonds have not been reported. However, PdCl2 has been used as a catalyst for copolymerization of ethylene and SO2 to polysulfones and insertion into a Pd-ethylene bond is a conceivable reaction step. 

Vinyl sulfides have been prepared by the catalytic addition of the S—H bond of thiols (85) to terminal alkynes (86) under solvent-free conditions using the nickel complex Ni(acac)2 (47). High alkyne conversions (up to 99%) were achieved after 30 min at 40 °C in favor of the corresponding Markovnikov products (87) (equation 23). Other metal acetylacetonate complexes were examined for this reaction, but none showed any improvement over the nickel catalyst. Mechanistic details suggest that alkyne insertion into the Ni—S bond is important to the catalytic cycle and that nanosized structural units comprised of [Ni(SAr)2] represent the active form of the catalyst. Isothiocyanates and vinyl sulfides have been produced in related Rh(acac)(H2C=CH2)2 (6) and VO(acac)2 (35) catalyzed sulfenylation reactions of aryl cyanides and aryl acetylenes, respectively. 

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