Molybdenum acetylide complexes

Equations 13.10-13.12 show three examples of the synthesis of vinylidene complexes by reactions of metal-acetylide complexes with acid or base. The molybdenum(II) acetylide complex in Equation 13.10 reacts with acid to protonate the p-carbon and generate a cationic vinylidene complex. In this case, the vinylidene complex is thermodynamically unstable. Warming to 0 °C leads to rearrangement of this species to the tautomeric alkyne complex. In contrast, the more electron-rich molybdenum-acetylide complex in Equation 13.11 containing three phosphite donors generates a vinylidene complex upon addition of a proton from alumina to the 3-carbon of the acetylide. The vinylidene form of the complex is apparently more stable than the alkyne complex in this case. 

Protonation of vinylidene and acetylide ligands was also found to be useful for the synthesis of high-oxidation state molybdenum alkylidyne complexes. Green and co-workers demonstrated protonation of the vinylidene complex 20 as shown in Eq. (21) (64). Selegue and co-workers... 

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