Metal-mediated activation

The alkali-metal mediated activation of toluene prompted further work involving more... 

Nevertheless, some notable effects have been observed in the metal-mediated activations of alkanols with larger alkyl backbones, where dehydration still persists but activation of internal C-H bonds via remote functionalization also becomes accessible. Thus, regiospecific 3,4-dehydrogenation of l,6-hexandiol/Fe+ [31] is associated with a considerable diastereoselectivity (an SE of about 3.2 can be derived from the experimental data). Similarly, 3,4-dehydrogenation of 1,8-oc-tandiol/Fe+ occurs diastereoselectively [32]. Note, however, that most complexes of the monofunctional alkanols 13 and 16 with Mn+-Co+ show negligible SEs. 

This is the first book of its kind which deals with the chemistry of transition metal-mediated activation of unreactive bonds not only from the inorganic point of view but also from that of synthetic organic chemistry. 

While the highly versatile rare-earth metal-catalyzed hydrogenation, hydroboration, hydrosilylation, hydroamination, and hydrophosphination has been studied over the last two decades, the rare-earth metal-mediated activation of the hydroxyl 0-H bond for an analogous hydroalkoxylation process [87,190] has been reported only recently. Homoleptic trisamides were reported to catalyze the smooth cyclization of allenyl alcohols [191] and alkynyl alcohols [191,192] to form the corresponding unsaturated ethers. 

Because of the extraordinary strength of the carbon-fluorine bond, transition metal-mediated activation of fluoroalkanes and arenes is not easy to achieve. Nevertheless, activation of the C-F bond in highly electron-deficient compounds such as 2,4,6-trifluoropyrimidine, pentafluoropyridine, or hexafluorobenzene is possible with stoichiometric amounts of bis(triethylphosphano) nickel(O) [101] (Scheme 2.45). More recently Herrmann and coworkers [102] have described a variant of the Kumada-Corriu cross-coupling reaction [103] between fluorobenzene and aryl Grignard compounds which uses catalytic amounts of nickel carbene complexes. Hammett analysis of the relative kinetic rate constants indicated that the reaction proceeds via initial oxidative addition of the fluoroaromatic reactant to the nickel(O) species. 

Scheme 2.45 Transition metal-mediated activation of the aromatic carbon—fluorine bond and subsequent reactions. Ahoue stoichiometric reaction of electron-deflclent fluoroarenes with NI(0) complexes [101]. Belou Ni(0) carbene-catalyzed Kumada-Corriu coupling between fluoroarenes and aryl Grignard compounds [102].

Several mechanisms for metal-mediated activation of carbon-hydrogen bonds have now been substantiated (Scheme 11.8).28 The most commonly accepted pathways... 

For recent reviews on cataiysis invoiving metal-mediated activation of dioxygen, see (a) Ezhova, M.B., James, B.R. In Advances in Catalytic Activation of Dioxygen by Metal Complexes, Simandi, L. I. (Ed.), Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2003, pp. 1-77 ... 

A unique method to generate the pyridine ring employed a transition metal-mediated 6-endo-dig cyclization of A-propargylamine derivative 120. The reaction proceeds in 5-12 h with yields of 22-74%. Gold (HI) salts are required to catalyze the reaction, but copper salts are sufficient with reactive ketones. A proposed reaction mechanism involves activation of the alkyne by transition metal complexation. This lowers the activation energy for the enamine addition to the alkyne that generates 121. The transition metal also behaves as a Lewis acid and facilitates formation of 120 from 118 and 119. Subsequent aromatization of 121 affords pyridine 122. 

Synthesis of optically pure compounds via transition metal mediated chiral catalysis is very useful from an industrial point of view. We can produce large amounts of chiral compounds with the use of very small quantities of a chiral source. The advantage of transition metal catalysed asymmetric transformation is that there is a possibility of improving the catalyst by modification of the ligands. Recently, olefinic compounds have been transformed into the corresponding optically active alcohols (ee 94-97%) by a catalytic hydroxylation-oxidation procedure. 

The reaction of an a-halo carbonyl compound with zinc, tin, or indium together with an aldehyde in water gave a direct cross-aldol reaction product (Eq. 8.90).226,227 A direct Reformatsky-type reaction occurred when an aromatic aldehyde reacted with an a-bromo ester in water mediated by zinc in low yields. Recently, it was found that such a reaction mediated by indium was successful and was promoted by son-ication (Eq. 8.91).228 The combination of BiCl3-Al,229 CdCl2-Sm,230 and Zn-Et3B-Eb0231 is also an effective mediator. Bismuth metal, upon activation by zinc fluoride, effected the crossed aldol reaction between a-bromo carbonyl compounds and aldehydes in aqueous media. The reaction was found to be regiospecific and syn-diastereoselective (Eq. 8.92).232... 

Transition metal centered bond activation reactions for obvious reasons require metal complexes ML, with an electron count below 18 ("electronic unsaturation") and with at least one open coordination site. Reactive 16-electron intermediates are often formed in situ by some form of (thermal, photochemical, electrochemical, etc.) ligand dissociation process, allowing a potential substrate to enter the coordination sphere and to become subject to a metal mediated transformation. The term "bond activation" as often here simply refers to an oxidative addition of a C-X bond to the metal atom as displayed for I and 2 in Scheme 1. 

A collection of such methods has been given J. A. Davies, R. J. Staples, Electrochemical Approaches to Transition Metal Mediated C-H Bond Activation, in Selective Hydrocarbon Activation (J. A. Davies, P. L. Watson, J. F. Liebman, A. Greenberg, Edits.), p. 379 ff, VCH Publishers, New York 1990. 

Metal alkoxides undergo alkoxide exchange with alcoholic compounds such as alcohols, hydro-xamic acids, and alkyl hydroperoxides. Alkyl hydroperoxides themselves do not epoxidize olefins. However, hydroperoxides coordinated to a metal ion are activated by coordination of the distal oxygen (O2) and undergo epoxidation (Scheme 1). When the olefin is an allylic alcohol, both hydroperoxide and olefin are coordinated to the metal ion and the epoxidation occurs swiftly in an intramolecular manner.22 Thus, the epoxidation of an allylic alcohol proceeds selectively in the presence of an isolated olefin.23,24 In this metal-mediated epoxidation of allylic alcohols, some alkoxide(s) (—OR) do not participate in the epoxidation. Therefore, if such bystander alkoxide(s) are replaced with optically active ones, the epoxidation is expected to be enantioselective. Indeed, Yamada et al.25 and Sharp less et al.26 independently reported the epoxidation of allylic alcohols using Mo02(acac)2 modified with V-methyl-ephedrine and VO (acac)2 modified with an optically active hydroxamic acid as the catalyst, respectively, albeit with modest enantioselectivity. 

Metal-mediated antibiotics like bleomycin, which requires iron or other metals for activity... 

Thus, a highly reactive species is needed to make this type of bond activation reaction feasible under mild conditions. In addition, to be useful, the C-H bond activation must occur with both high chemo- and regiose-lectivity. Over the past several decades, it has been shown that transition metal complexes are able to carry out alkane activation reactions (1-5). Many of these metal-mediated reactions operate under mild to moderate conditions and exhibit the desirable chemoselectivity and regioselectiv-ity. Thus, using transition metal complexes, alkane activation can be preferred over product activation, and the terminal positions of alkanes, which actually contain the stronger C-H bonds, can be selectively activated. The fact that a hydrocarbon C-H bond has been broken in a... 

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