Metal-hydrocarbon complexes reactions

This review deals with metal-hydrocarbon complexes under the following headings (1) the nature of the metal-olefin and -acetylene bond (2) olefin complexes (3) acetylene complexes (4) rr-allylic complexes and (5) complexes in which the ligand is not the original olefin or acetylene, but a molecule produced from it during complex formation. ir-Cyclopentadienyl complexes, formed by reaction of cyclopentadiene or its derivatives with metal salts or carbonyls (78, 217), are not discussed in this review, neither are complexes derived from aromatic systems, e.g., benzene, the cyclo-pentadienyl anion, and the cycloheptatrienyl cation (74, 78, 217), and from acetylides (169, 170), which have been reviewed elsewhere. 

A few further general examples of zinc catalytic activity or reactivity include the following. Other zinc-containing systems include a zinc phenoxide/nickel(0) catalytic system that can be used to carry out the chemo- and regioselective cyclotrimerization of monoynes.934 Zinc homoenolates have been used as novel nucleophiles in acylation and addition reactions and shown to have general utility.935,936 Iron/zinc species have been used in the oxidation of hydrocarbons, and the selectivity and conditions examined.362 There are implications for the mechanism of metal-catalyzed iodosylbenzene reactions with olefins from the observation that zinc triflate and a dizinc complex catalyze these reactions.937... 

In our laboratory we have utilized multiphoton infrared laser activation of metal ion-hydrocarbon adducts to probe the lowest energy pathways of complex reaction systems (6). Freiser and co-workers have utilized dispersed visible and uv radiation from conventional light sources to examine photochemical processes involving organometallic fragments... 

At least for ethylene hydrogenation, catalysis appears to be simpler over oxides than over metals. Even if we were to assume that Eqs. (1) and (2) told the whole story, this would be true. In these terms over oxides the hydrocarbon surface species in the addition of deuterium to ethylene would be limited to C2H4 and C2H4D, whereas over metals a multiplicity of species of the form CzH D and CsHs-jD, would be expected. Adsorption (18) and IR studies (19) reveal that even with ethylene alone, metals are complex. When a metal surface is exposed to ethylene, selfhydrogenation and dimerization occur. These are surface reactions, not catalysis in other words, the extent of these reactions is determined by the amount of surface available as a reactant. The over-all result is that a metal surface exposed to an olefin forms a variety of carbonaceous species of variable stoichiometry. The presence of this variety of relatively inert species confounds attempts to use physical techniques such as IR to char-... 

In most palladium-catalyzed oxidations of unsaturated hydrocarbons the reaction begins with a coordination of the double bond to palladium(II). In such palladium(II) olefin complexes (1), which are square planar d8 complexes, the double bond is activated towards further reactions, in particular towards nucleophilic attack. A fairly strong interaction between a vacant orbital on palladium and the filled --orbital on the alkene, together with only a weak interaction between a filled metal d-orbital and the olefin ji -orbital (back donation), leads to an electrophilic activation of the alkene9. 

Examples of reductive cluster-opening and oxidative cluster-closing reactions are common in the chemistry of metal-hydrocarbon tt complexes. For example, bases convert nido- (hexa-hapto)arene-manganese tricarbonyl complexes into aracAno(pentahapto)-7T-cyclohexadienyl complexes 129,130, 217) ... 

Metals which with adsorbed CO prefer to form metal-carbon bonds on the summits are Pt and Ir (Cu ) metals which promote binding in the valley are Pd > Ni > Rh, Re. Metals promoting multiple metal-carbon bonds (with hydrocarbons) are Ni, Ru, Rh Pt and Pd are much worse in this respect. Let us extrapolate and assume that what holds for CO also holds for hydrocarbon molecules, and that the characterization of the multiple-bond formation propensity is valid also at higher temperatures than were established experimentally by exchange reactions. Then we can attempt to rationalize the available information on the formation and the role of various hydrocarbon complexes. 

Finally the ESR spectrum of Nb(7r-allyl)4/alumina was unaffected by the addition of ethylene gas to the ESR sample tube. It is assumed that polyethylene is produced in this process since polymer can be isolated from larger scale reactions under similar conditions. The accepted mechanism for the ethylene growth reaction postulates a steady-state concentration of a a-bonded transition metal-hydrocarbon species which would be expected to modify the ESR spectrum of the supported complex. A possible explanation for the failure to detect a change in the ESR spectrum may be that only a small number of the niobium sites are active for polymerization. Although further experiments are needed to verify this proposition, it is consistent with IR data and radiochemical studies of similar catalyst systems (41, 42, 43). 

The complementary approach, activation of unsaturated hydrocarbons toward electrophilic attack by complexation with electron-rich metal fragments, has seen limited investigation. Although there are certainly opportunities in this area which have not been exploited, the electrophilic reactions present a more complex problem relative to nucleophilic addition. For example, consider the nucleophilic versus electrophilic addition to a terminal carbon of a saturated 18-electron metal-diene complex. Nucleophilic addition generates a stable 18-electron saturated ir-allyl complex. In contrast, electrophilic addition at carbon results in removal of two valence electrons from the metal and formation of an unstable ir-allyl unsaturated 16-electron complex (Scheme 1). 

It may be concluded from the preceding discussion that at this juncture there is no bona fide evidence for the initiation of autoxidations by direct hydrogen transfer between metal-dioxygen complexes and hydrocarbon substrates. Although such a process may eventually prove feasible, in catalytic systems it will often be readily masked by the facile reaction of the metal complex with hydroperoxide. The choice of cumene as substrate by many investigators is somewhat unfortunate for several reasons. Cumene readily undergoes free radical chain autoxidation under mild conditions and its hydroperoxide readily decomposes by both homolytic and heterolytic processes. 

The existence of numerous oxygenases that catalyze the direct oxygenation of organic substrates continues to stimulate the search for atom transfer oxidations of hydrocarbons by simple metal-dioxygen complexes. (For a further discussion of reactions of metal-dioxygen complexes with organic substrates via heterolytic pathways, see Section III.C). 

The facility with which metal complexes bring about reactions 8.16 and 8.17 depends on several factors, one of the important ones being the half-cell potential (E°) of the M"+/M(n+1)+ couple. It should be remembered, however, that most E° values for metal ions have been measured in an aqueous environment. On complexation and in an organic liquid these values are expected to change substantially. The initial hydroperoxide required for metal-catalyzed decomposition, reactions 8.16 and 8.17, is normally present in trace quantities in most hydrocarbons. 

With purified hydrocarbons where such trace impurities have been scrupulously removed, a long induction time precedes metal-catalyzed autoxidation. The mechanism of formation of initial R02H in the absence of a radical chain is not known in any detail, but metal ions do not seem to be involved. The most important point to note in this context is that various types of metal-dioxygen complexes have been isolated and fully characterized. However, such complexes do not seem to play any role in metal ion initiated autoxidation reactions. 

M. I. Bruce Substitution reactions of hydrocarbon-metal w complexes, pp. 388-430 (193). 

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