Metal carbonyls photocatalytic reactions

Reaction of Ruthenium Carbonyls with Alkyl Radicals Boese and Goldman reported that in the presence of aryl ketones, d8 metal carbonyls such as Ru(CO)3(dmpe) mediate photocatalytic carbonylation of alkanes via a free radical mechanism.161 The activity was proposed to be initiated by the addition of an alkyl radical to the metal carbonyl and the formation of a metal-acyl radical intermediate. The transition states and the products of the reaction between alkyl radicals and ruthenium carbonyls were studied utilizing the B3LYP level of theory.162 The methyl addition to a carbonyl of Ru(CO)5 or Ru(CO)3(dmpe) was computed to be about 6 kcal/mol more exothermic than addition to free CO. 

The proposed intermediacy of [Fe(CO)3], coupled with the high quantum efficiency observed with most mononuclear metal carbonyl complexes [54], inspired Schroeder and Wrighton to study photocatalytic olefin isomerization, hydrogenation and hydrosilylation reactions with Fe(CO)s [55], Irradiation of Fe(CO)s with near ultraviolet (Amax = 366nm) lightin the presence of excess 1-pentene furnished the thermodynamic mixture of cis and trons-2-pentene over the course of 2 h. From photolysis studies in neat olefin, it was estimated that each iron center produced... 

Another photocatalytic reaction of some interest is the cyclic dimerization of alkenes, which has been reported for a number of different metal carbonyls including Fe(CO)s, Cr(CO)6, Ni(CO)4 and several substituted analogs [83-85]. Although such dimerizations are catalyzed thermally by some of the same species, the stereochemistries of the products differ depending both upon which complex is utilized and whether the reaction is carried out thermally or photochemically. The dimerization of butadiene to 4-vinylcyclohexene photocatalyzed by the iron dicarbonyl Fe(CO>2(NO)2 has been studied by examining the intermediates formed when the photolysis was carried out in liq. Xe [85]. The key species was found to be the disubstituted species Fe(NO)2(Ti -butadiene)2 which was proposed to undergo isomerization to Fe(NO)2( n -butadiene)(ri2-butadiene) which can undergo an internal Diels-Alder cyclization to the vinyl cyclohexene. 

The enhanced reactivity of oxiranes due to geometric strain is manifested in their acid- and base-catalyzed reactions, in their rearrangements in the presence of metals and metal compounds, and in their thermal and photocatalytic transformations. These reactions permit the development of new and varied methods of synthesis and the preparation of derivatives that in many cases are difficult to obtain by other routes. The main products of the isomerization reaction are unsaturated alcohols and carbonyl compounds. Great progress has been made in this area of organic chemistry during the past 20 years (The reader is referred to some relevant... 

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