Olefin complexes nucleophilic attack

Activation of olefins to nucleophilic attack, by 7r-complex formation at soft metal centers (Section III.D), can also occur with heterogeneous catalysts. Thus, the oxidation of ethylene to acetaldehyde or vinyl acetate, as described earlier for homogeneous Pd(II) catalysts, can also be carried out heterogeneously in either the liquid or gas phase.512... 

Analogous reactions with the monodentate maleato dianion, however, do not occur and this is not surprising organic chemistry since the terminal anion should deactivate the olefin to nucleophilic attack. It became interesting, therefore, to examine the chelated maleato complex where both carboxylate ions are bound to the metal center and where both should have some ester-like quality. 

The Wacker and related oxidations do not involve activation of dioxygen or any form of dioxygen complexes. Oxidation occurs essentially via reductive elimination of aldehyde from a hydroxyalkylpalladium(II) intermediate. Activation of the olefin toward nucleophilic attack is due to coordination to Pd(II). 

Hydroaminations occurring by nucleophilic attack on ir-ligands are the oldest class of hydroamination and are discussed first. A mechanism for the hydroamination of alk-enes and alkynes catalyzed by palladium(II) complexes is shown in Scheme 16.16. By this pathway, coordination of the alkene or alkyne through the -ir-system occurs to generate a cationic or electron-poor, neutral metal-olefin or metal-alkyne complex. Nucleophilic attack of the amine on the coordinated olefin or alkyne then occurs. Nucleophilic attack on coordinated olefins and alkynes is presented in detail in Chapter 11. As noted in Chapter 11, this nucleophilic attack occurs at the internal position of an alkene or alkyne. 

Facile reaction of a carbon nucleophile with an olefinic bond of COD is the first example of carbon-carbon bond formation by means of Pd. COD forms a stable complex with PdCl2. When this complex 192 is treated with malonate or acetoacetate in ether under heterogeneous conditions at room temperature in the presence of Na2C03, a facile carbopalladation takes place to give the new complex 193, formed by the introduction of malonate to COD. The complex has TT-olefin and cr-Pd bonds. By the treatment of the new complex 193 with a base, the malonate carbanion attacks the cr-Pd—C bond, affording the bicy-clo[6.1,0]-nonane 194. The complex also reacts with another molecule of malonate which attacks the rr-olefin bond to give the bicyclo[3.3.0]octane 195 by a transannulation reaction[l2.191]. The formation of 194 involves the novel cyclopropanation reaction of alkenes by nucleophilic attack of two carbanions. 

Osborn and Green s elegant results are instructive, but their relevance to metathesis must be qualified. Until actual catalytic activity with the respective complexes is demonstrated, it remains uncertain whether this chemistry indeed relates to olefin metathesis. With this qualification in mind, their work in concert is pioneering as it provides the initial experimental backing for a basic reaction wherein an olefin and a metal exclusively may produce the initiating carbene-metal complex by a simple sequence of 7r-complexation followed by a hydride shift, thus forming a 77-allyl-metal hydride entity which then rearranges into a metallocyclobutane via a nucleophilic attack of the hydride on the central atom of the 7r-allyl species ... 

The fact that Schrock s proposed metallocyclobutanes decomposed to propylene derivatives rather than cyclopropanes was fortunate in that further information resulted regarding the stereochemistry of the olefin reaction with the carbene carbon, as now the /3-carbon from the metal-locycle precursor retained its identity. The reaction course was consistent with nucleophilic attack of the carbene carbon on the complexed olefin, despite potential steric hindrance from the bulky carbene. Decomposition via pathways f-h in Eq. (26) was clearly confirmed in studies utilizing deuterated olefins (67). 

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. 

The Ptm-Ptm bond in the alkyl complexes exhibits a unique character in that the Pt atom acts both as Ptn and PtIV or the intermediate through electron localization and delocalization along the Pt-Pt axis (1) coordination of olefin is a Pt11 character, since no olefin-Pt17 complex is known and (2) the very easy and rapid nucleophilic attack on the coordinated alkyl ce-carbon atoms is a PtIV character. Alkyl-Ptn complexes do not easily undergo nucleophilic attack unless the com-... 

An important finding is that all peroxo compounds with d° configuration of the TM center exhibit essentially the same epoxidation mechanism [51, 61, 67-72] which is also valid for organic peroxo compounds such as dioxiranes and peracids [73-79], The calculations revealed that direct nucleophilic attack of the olefin at an electrophilic peroxo oxygen center (via a TS of spiro structure) is preferred because of significantly lower activation barriers compared to the multi-step insertion mechanism [51, 61-67]. A recent computational study of epoxidation by Mo peroxo complexes showed that the metallacycle intermediate of the insertion mechanism leads to an aldehyde instead of an epoxide product [62],... 

In the alkoxycarbonylation, the hydride mechanism initiates through the olefin insertion into a Pd - H bond, followed by the insertion of CO into the resulting Pd-alkyl bond with formation of an acyl intermediate, which undergoes nucleophilic attack of the alkanol to give the ester and the Pd - H+ species, which initiates the next catalytic cycle [35,40,57,118]. Alternatively, it has been proposed that a ketene intermediate forms from the acyl complex via /3-hydride elimination, followed by rapid addition of the alcohol [119]. In principle the alkyl intermediate may form also by protonation of the olefin coordinated to a Pd(0) complex [120,121]. 

Examination of the reactivity of acyclic (diene)Fe(CO)3 complexes indicates that this nucleophilic addition is reversible. The reaction of (C4H6)Fe(CO)3 with strong carbon nucleophiles, followed by protonation, gives olefinic products 195 and 196 (Scheme 49)187. The ratio of 195 and 196 depends upon the reaction temperature and time. Thus, for short reaction time and low temperature (0.5 h, —78 °C) the product from attack at C2 (i.e. 195) predominates while at higher temperature and longer reaction time (2 h, 0 °C) the product from attack at Cl (i.e. 196) predominates. This selectivity is rationalized by kinetically controlled attack at the more electron-poor carbon (C2) at low temperature. Nucleophilic attack is reversible and, under conditions where an equilibrium is established, the thermodynamically more stable (allyl)Fe(CO)3" is favored. The regioselectivity for nucleophilic attack on substituted (diene)Fe(CO)3 complexes has been reported187. The... 

The mechanism for the stereoselective polymerization of a-olefins and other nonpolar alkenes is a Ti-complexation of monomer and transition metal (utilizing the latter s if-orbitals) followed by a four-center anionic coordination insertion process in which monomer is inserted into a metal-carbon bond as described in Fig. 8-10. Support for the initial Tt-com-plexation has come from ESR, NMR, and IR studies [Burfield, 1984], The insertion reaction has both cationic and anionic features. There is a concerted nucleophilic attack by the incipient carbanion polymer chain end on the a-carbon of the double bond together with an electrophilic attack by the cationic counterion on the alkene Ti-electrons. 

Alike olefins, allenes also undergo palladium mediated addition in the presence of N-H or O-H bonds. Although these reactions show some similarity to Wacker-type processes, from the mechanistic point of view they are quite different. Allenes, such as the cr-aminoallene in 3.69., usually undergo addition with palladium complexes (e.g. carbopalladation in 3.69. and 3.70., or hydropalladation in 3.71.), which leads to the formation of a functionalized allylpalladium complex. Subsequent intramolecular nucleophilic attack by the amino group leads to the closure of the pyrroline ring.87... 

Secondary amines can be added to certain nonactivated olefins if palladium(II) complexes are used as catalysts.208 The complexation lowers the electron density of the double bond, facilitating nucleophilic attack.209 Markovnikov orientation is observed and the addition is anti.210... 

The acetaldehyde-forming step (eq. 7) involves nucleophilic attack by hydroxide or water on a coordinated Pd olefin complex followed by P-hydride elimination. 

Diperoxo(oxo)molybdenum(IV) complex bearing (S)-lactic acid piperidineamide as a chiral ligand has been used for the epoxidation of E-2-butene (Scheme 6B.8) and moderate enantiose-lectivity (49%) is achieved wherein the reaction is stoichiometric [16]. Two possible mechanisms have been proposed for this reaction. One mechanism includes coordination of an olefin prior to epoxidation, which makes the olefin electrophilic and facilitates the nucleophilic attack of the proximal oxygen atom of the peroxide on the olefin. The other one is that an olefin nucleophilically attacks the peroxo group of the molybdenum complex. 

Tungsten j4-diene cations in both s-trans and s-cis forms have been synthesized and the influence of the diene conformation on the regiochemistry of nucleophilic attack has been demonstrated488. Application of nucleophilic additions to Mo-complexed olefins in the construction of quaternary carbon centres has been summarized489. 

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