Metal atoms reactions with small-molecule organic

Some enzymes require cofactors to activate catalysis. Typical cofactors are metal atoms, ammonia, and small organic molecules that associate with the enzyme and help to structure the catalytic site. To conduct an enz5anatic reaction, the necessary cofactors must be suppUed along with the substrate and the enzyme. In cell metabolism, a variety of these cofactors act in conjunction with inhibitors to control the metabolic rate. 

Abstraction, reductive coupling, electron transfer, bond activation, oxidative addition, n-complexation, disproportionation and metal cluster formation are some of the reactions that occur when metal atoms interact with organic polymers and small molecules. Examples of these reactions are provided from the literature on the organometallic chemistry of free atoms and coordination-deficient molecules. Past uses of model compound studies to understand the early stages of chromium metallization on polyimide are critiqued. New evidence for reactions of chromium atoms with compounds related to polyimides is given. 

The formation of molecular radical ions by electron transfer reactions between alkali metals and a wide variety of aromatic and other organic compounds in polar solvents is well established. A very large number of radical anions have been prepared by this method and extensive studies of their e.s.r. and optical spectra have been made (Bowers, 1965 Gerson, 1967 Kaiser and Kevan, 1968). In solution the electron transfer reaction will be facilitated by the subsequent solvation of the two ions (or ion pair) by the polar solvent molecules. However, we have observed that similar electron transfer reactions occur readily when alkali metal atoms are deposited on a variety of relatively non polar substances at 77°K in the rotating cryostat. In most cases the parent compound acts as the matrix, though for some radical ions an inert matrix of a non-polar hydrocarbon has been used successfully. It is perhaps surprising that the reactions occur so readily as the energy of solvation of the ions must be quite small in most of these systems as compared with that in the polar liquids. 

Scheme 41 outlines the essence of chiral catalysis. The chiral catalysts in general work homogeneously which means that they are small molecules, mostly monomeric and contain one (mononuclear) or sometimes two (binuclear) metal atoms in a chelate complex with chiral organic ligands. Typical metals are Pd(0), Pd(II), Rh(I), Rh(II), Cu(II) which are used for essentially non-polar reactions... 

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