Metal carbene intermediate

Abstract The dirhodium(II) core is a template onto which both achiral and chiral ligands are placed so that four exist in a paddle wheel fashion around the core. The resulting structures are effective electrophilic catalysts for diazo decomposition in reactions that involve metal carbene intermediates. High selectivities are achieved in transformations ranging from addition to insertion and association. The syntheses of natural products and compounds of biological interest have employed these catalysts and methods with increasing frequency. 

The reason for the different behavior of dienes like 41 and monoenes 37 or 42 is not yet established. It is hard to believe that simple steric factors should make up for the different orientation of the olefin that approaches a metal carbene intermediate. More likely is stereochemical control by an ylide-type interaction between the halogen atom of the (sterically more flexible) monoenes 37 or 42 and the electrophilic metal carbene. 

The mechanism of the catalytic metathesis reaction proceeds via reaction of the olefin substrate with a metal carbene intermediate, which may be generated in situ... 

Ethers, sulfides, amines, carbonyl compounds, and imines are among the frequently encountered Lewis bases in the ylide formation from such metal carbene complex. The metal carbene in the ylide formation can be divided into stable Fisher carbene complex and unstable reactive metal carbene intermediates. The reaction of the former is thus stoichiometric and the latter is usually a transition metal complex-catalyzed reaction of a-diazocarbonyl compounds. The decomposition of a-diazocarbonyl compounds with catalytic transition metal complex has been the most widely used approach to generate reactive metal carbenes. For compressive reviews, see Refs 1,1a. 

Among transition-metal compounds that are effective for metal carbene transformations, those of Cu and Rh have received the most attention [7-10]. Cu catalysis for reactions of diazo compounds with olefins has been known for more than 90 years [11], but the first report of Rh catalysis, in the form of dirhodium(II) tetraacetate, has been recent [12], Although metal carbene intermediates with catalytically active Cu or Rh compounds have not yet been observed, those... 

Two resonance-contributing structures (3a and 3b), in the formalism of ylide structures, can be used to describe metal carbene intermediates. The highly electrophilic character of those derived from Cu and Rh catalysts suggests that the contribution from the metal-stabilized carbocation 3b is important in the overall evaluation of the reactivities and selectivities of these metal carbene intermediates. Emphasis on the metal carbene structure 3a has led to the subsequently discounted proposal that cyclopropane formation from reactions with alkenes occurs through the intervention of a metallocyclobutane intermediate [18]. The metal-stabilized carbocation structure 3b is consistent with the cyclopropanation mechanism in which LnM dissociates from the carbene as bond-formation occurs between the carbene and the reacting alkene (Eq. 5.4) [7,15]. 

Rh(II) carboxylates, especially Rh2(OAc)4> have emerged as the most generally effective catalysts for metal carbene transformations [7-10] and thus interest continues in the design and development of dirhodium(II) complexes that possess chiral51igands. They are structurally well-defined, with D2h symmetry [51] and axial coordination sites at which carbene formation occurs in reactions with diazo compounds. With chiral dirhodium(II) carboxylates the asymmetric center is located relatively far from the carbene center in the metal carbene intermediate. The first of these to be reported with applications to cyclopropanation reactions was developed by Brunner [52], who prepared 13 chiral dirhodium(II) tetrakis(car-boxylate) derivatives (16) from enantiomerically pure carboxylic acids RlR2R3CC OOH with substituents that were varied from H, Me, and Ph to OH, NHAc, and CF3. However, reactions performed between ethyl diazoacetate and styrene yielded cyclopropane products whose enantiopurities were less than 12% ee, a situation analogous to that encountered by Nozaki [2] in the first applications of chiral Schiff base-Cu(II) catalysts. 

The extensive data accumulated by Nakamura and Otsuka, although interpreted by them as being due to the intervention of metal carbene and metallocyclobutane intermediates, can also be rationalized by an alternative mechanism in which coordination of the chiral Co(II) catalyst with the alkene activates the alkene for electrophilic addition to the diazo compound (Scheme 5.4). Subsequent ring closure can be envisioned to occur via a diazonium ion intermediate, without involving at any stage a metal carbene intermediate. 

Enantiocontrol is high throughout, but diastereocontrol is markedly dependent on the structure of the ligand, that is, the ligand providing the most restrictive cavity is the one that influences the conformational equilibrium of the metal carbene intermediate (Scheme 5.6). 

Transition-metal catalysis, especially by copper, rhodium, palladium and ruthenium compounds, is another approved method for the decomposition of diazo compounds. It is now generally accepted that short-lived metal-carbene intermediates are or may be involved in many of the associated transformations28. Nevertheless, these catalytic carbene transfer reactions will be fully covered in this chapter because of the close similarity in reaction modes of electrophilic carbenes and the presumed electrophilic metal-carbene complexes. 

Molecular mechanics was also used to model enantioselective metal-carbene transformations catalyzed by chiral dirhodium(II) compounds155. Here, a considerably more thorough approach was used, and the experimental structures of the catalysts were accurately reproduced. A difficulty encountered in this study was the parameterization of the metal-carbene intermediate. This might be part of the reason why in some cases the predicted enantioselectivities were opposite to those observed 55. ... 

Rearrangements of 1,3-diynes (43) to dienynes (45a) and (45b) have been carried out catalytically a metal-carbene intermediate (44) is likely to be involved.41 Interestingly, gold catalysis provides mainly (45a) whereas platinum catalysis under a CO atmosphere yields predominantly (45b). 

A theoretical study of the mechanism of ruthenium-catalyzed formation of pyran-2-one and the corresponding sulfur and selenium analogues 8 from acetylene and CX2 (X = O, S, Se) has been reported (Equation 3) <2004NJC153>. This cyclotrimerization reaction has been experimentally carried out using carbon disulfide as a substrate <2002JA28>. The proposed mechanism involves formation of a bicyclic metal carbene intermediate. Formation of this intermediate seems to be particularly unfavorable energetically in the case of carbon diselenide. 

The fact that very high molecular weight materials form under these aqueous conditions indicates that if a termination reaction involving the hydrolysis of the carbon-metal bonds is occuring in either the metallacycle or metal carbene intermediates, it has a much slower rate (by several orders of magnitude) than the rate of polymer propagation. 

As we saw in Section 2.2.2, an interaction between metal and the a-hydro-gen of an alkyl group is called an agostic interaction. In an extreme situation, where the interaction between the metal atom and the a-hydrogen leads to formal cleavage of the carbon-hydrogen bond, a mechanism involving a metal-carbene intermediate may be invoked. This proposal is known as the Green and Rooney mechanism, and two of the proposed catalytic intermediates are shown by 6.9 and 6.10. 

Reaction 7.34 involves a metal-carbene intermediate, while reaction 7.35 involves nucleophilic attack by the diazo compound to the coordinated alkene. With a rhodium-porphyrin catalyst direct spectroscopic evidence has been obtained for the carbene pathway (see Section 2.5.2). 

Catalysts include copper pyrazolylborates (TpJCutQHt), Ru11 porphyrins, and Rh11 carboxylates.98 Metal carbene intermediates are likely such species are also present in the ruthenium-catalyzed stereoselective coupling of a-diazocarbonyl compounds 99... 

Many types of metal complexes polymerize alkynes, either, like WCls or (CO)5W=C(Ph)OMe, via metal-carbene intermediates,... 

Chiral dirhodium(II) tetrakis(methyl-2-oxopyrrolidine-5-carboxylates) and dirhodium(ll) tetrakis(4-benzyl-2-oxazolidinones) have been studied to determine factors influencing the enantiocontrol in metal-carbene transformations. Doyle et al. used the Tektronix CAChe molecular modeling system to examine the steric control on the optical yields of cyclopropanation products.Details of the force field are not available in the open literature. The low energy conformation of the proposed metal-carbene intermediate predicted absolute configurations of the product that conflicted with experiment. However, when the metal-carbene was weakly bonded to styrene, the low energy conformer... 

The mechanism for olefin metathesis is complex, and involves metal-carbene intermediates— intermediates that contain a metal-carbon double bond. The mechanism is drawn for the reaction of a terminal alkene (RCH=CH2) with Grubbs catalyst, abbreviated as Ru=CHPh, to form RCH = CHR and CH2 = CH2. To begin metathesis, Grubbs catalyst reacts with the alkene substrate to form two new metal-carbenes A and B by a two-step process addition of Ru=CHPh to the alkene to yield two different metallocyclobutanes (Step [1]), followed by elimination to form A and B (Steps [2a] and [2b]). The alkene by-products formed in this process (RCH=CHPh and PhCH=CH2) are present in only a small amount since Grubbs reagent is used catalytically. 

Each of these metal-carbene intermediates A and B then reacts with more starting alkene to form metathesis products, as shown in Mechanism 26.6. This mechanism is often written in a circle to emphasize the catalytic cycle. The mechanism demonstrates how two molecules of RCH= CH2 are converted to RCH=CHR and CH2=CH2. 

Cyclopropanation of the olefinic product does not occur the catalytic metal-carbene intermediate obviously cannot transfer its CR R unit to the olefinic double bond (see, however, metal-catalyzed cyclopropanation, Section 3.1.7). 

The elucidation of the mechanism for olefin metathesis reactions has provided one of the most challenging problems in organometallic chemistry. In Volume 1 Rooney and Stewart concluded that the carbene chain mechanism is now generally accepted for olefin metathesis reactions, but much remains to be learned about the formation and reactivity of metal-carbene intermediates, metallocycles, and especially the mechanistic aspects of chain initiations. Since that report, systems have been designed that begin to reveal the important mechanistic features of olefin metathesis. 

Cyclopropanation reactions with these catalysts are typically carried out with 0.5-2 mol% (with respect to the diazo compound) of catalyst and a five- to tenfold excess of alkene. Under these conditions, the formation of formal carbene dimers [e.g. diethyl ( )-but-2-enedioate and (Z)-but-2-enedioate from ethyl diazoacetate], arising from the competition between alkene and the metal-carbene intermediate for the diazo compound, can be largely suppressed. It has been shown, however, that the control of the addition rate of the diazoacetic ester has no effect on the cyclopropane yield with (dibenzonitrile)palladium(II) chloride as catalyst, in contrast to tetraacetatodirhodium, Rhg(CO)ig, and CuCl P(OR)3. ... 

The problems are due to the electrophilicity of the metal-carbene intermediates in these transformations, and to competitive, fast dihydropyrazole formation resulting from uncatalyzed thermal [3 + 2] cycloaddition of the diazo compound to the alkene furthermore, o , -unsaturated nitriles often yield 2-vinyloxazoles under the reaction conditions. 

In functionalized alkenes, a sufficiently nucleophilic substituent, that is not directly attached to the double bond, usually interferes with the cyclopropanation reaction. Typically, electrophilic attack of the metal-carbene intermediate to a heteroatom lone pair generates an ylide that undergoes further reactions to generate a stable product. 

---