Olefin metathesis using metal carbene complexes

As will be discussed more thoroughly in Section 3.2.5, transition metal carbene complexes can mediate olefin metathesis. Because heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes are usually less reactive towards olefins than the corresponding nonheteroatom-substituted complexes, it is, e.g., possible to use enol ethers to terminate living polymerization or other types of metathesis reaction catalyzed by a non-heteroatom-substituted carbene complex. Olefin metathesis can also be used to prepare new heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes (Figure 2.15, Table 2.11). 

This article presents the principles known so far for the synthesis of metal complexes containing stable carbenes, including the preparation of the relevant carbene precursors. The use of some of these compounds in transition-metal-catalyzed reactions is discussed mainly for ruthenium-catalyzed olefin metathesis and palladium-Znickel-catalyzed coupling reactions of aryl halides, but other reactions will be touched upon as well. Chapters about the properties of metal- carbene complexes, their applications in materials science and medicinal chemistry, and their role in bioinorganic chemistry round the survey off. The focus of this review is on ZV-heterocyclic carbenes, in the following abbreviated as NHC and NHCs, respectively. 

Olefin metathesis is a unique reaction and is only possible by transition metal catalysis. In fact only complexes of Mo, W, Re, and Ru are known to catalyze olefin metathesis. Once it was known that metallocarbenes were the actual catalytic species, a variety of metal carbene complexes were prepared and evaluated as catalysts. Two types of catalysts have emerged as the most useful overall. The molybdenum-based catalysts developed by Schrock and ruthenium-based catalysts developed by Grubbs. 

Over the past 15 years the understanding of the mechanism of these reactions has been greatly enhanced through the preparation of metal carbene complexes, particularly of Mo, W and Ru, that are both electronically unsaturated (<18e) and coordinatively unsaturated (usually <6 ligands), and which can act directly as initiators of olefin metathesis reactions. The intermediate metallacyclobutane complexes can also occasionally be observed. Furthermore, certain metallacyclobutane complexes can be used as initiators. 

Among the first 18-electron (18e) Fischer-type metal carbene complexes to be used as part of an olefin metathesis catalyst system were W[=C(OMe)Et](CO)5 with BU4NCI (for pent-l-ene)79, and W[=C(OEt)Bu](CO)5 with TiCLt (for cyclopentene)80. These complexes may also be activated thermally, e.g. for the polymerization of alkynes81, or photochemically, e.g. for the ROMP of cycloocta-1,5-diene82. The essential requirement is that a vacancy be created at the metal centre to allow the substrate to enter the coordination sphere. Occasionally the substrate may itself be able to displace one of the CO ligands. 

Olefin metathesis has proved to be a powerful synthetic tool in organic synthesis.5 The advent of well-defined metal carbene complexes with remarkable functional group tolerance has rendered metathesis as an efficient route to the synthesis of new C-C bonds. Examples of widely used ruthenium metathesis catalysts include [Ru-1],6 [Ru-2]7 and [Ru-3] 8 (Figure 1). 

The preferences of the various pathways are dependent on the catalyst used, specifically the electronic and steric factors involved. The electronic contribution is based on the preference of the metallacycle to have the electron-donating alkyl groups at either the a or the carbon of ftie metallacycle [23]. The steric factors involved in the approach of the olefin to the metal carbene also determine the re-giochemistry of the metallacyclobutane formed. These factors include both steric repulsion of the olefin and carbene substituents from each other and from the ancillary ligands of the metal complex. Paths (b), (c), and (e) in Scheme 6.10 are important to productive ADMET. The relative rates of pathways (c) and (e) will determine the kinetic amount of cis and trans double bonds in the polymer chain. Flowever, in some cases a more thermodynamic ratio of cis to trans olefin isomers is attained after long reaction times, presumably by a trans-metathesis olefin equilibration mechanism [31] (Scheme 6.11). 

The most important advance over the past 15 years has been the preparation of numerous well-defined metal carbene complexes which can act directly as initiators of all types of olefin metathesis reaction. These second-generation catalysts allow much closer control and better understanding of the mechanism of the olefin metathesis reaction. The initiating and propagating species can be closely monitored and in some cases the intermediate metallacyclobutane complexes can also be observed. Well-defined metallacyclobutane complexes also can sometimes be used as initiators. 

Stable metal carbene complexes, such as W[=C(OMe)Me](CO)5, were first prepared by Fischer, E.O. (1964). These 18-electron complexes can be activated as catalysts for the metathesis of pent-l-ene or the ROMP of cycloalkenes by the use of a cocatalyst, or by heat or UV irradiation see Table 2.1. For such complexes to become active as initiators of olefin metathesis it is necessary for a CO ligand to be displaced, allowing the substrate to enter the coordination shell and react with the metal carbene bond. For the ROMP of 1-methyl-rrans-cyclooctene initiated by W(=CPh2)(CO)5 at 50°C the Ph2C= end groups may be detected in the polymer by the UV absorption at 245 nm (Lee, S.J. 1976). 

The reaction of a metal-carbene complex with an olefin may lead to either cyclopropane or metathesis products, depending on the metal center and its ancillary ligands. In the case of olefin metathesis, the reaction may occur in variations that have enormous numbers of synthetic applications. Although these products are diverse in structure, they are all related by the same basic metal-carbene-mediated mechanism of formation. Because we provide only an overview of applications in this section and do not specify the particular catalyst used in each case, we direct the reader to the extensive reviews that are available for more information [32]. 

Work has been performed in which the quaternary pyridinium functionality was attached to 7-oxanorbornene-5,6-exo-dicarboximide-functionalised monomers which were subsequently polymerised using a Grubbs catalyst (Grubbs catalysts are a series of transition metal carbene complexes used as catalysts for olefin metathesis). The polymer series, a-f, and quaternised polymer, a , (Figure 9.1 and Table 9.1) was designed to study the effect of the hydrophobic alkyl substituent on the antibacterial and haemolytic activities of polymers using dimethylformamide (DMF) as the solvent. 

In the preparative section 3.2 devoted to metal-carbene complexes, it is shown how the a-elimination reaction from high oxidation state early-transition-metal-alkyl complexes is one of the general methods of synthesis of Schrock s Ta and Nb alkylidene complexes. The other direction, formation of an alkylidene from an alkylidyne complex, can also be a valuable route to metal alkylidenes. For instance, Schrock s arylamino-tungsten-carbynes can be isomerized to imido-tungsten-carbene by using a catalytic amount of NEts as a base. These compounds are precursors of olefin metathesis catalysts by substitution of the two Cl ligands by bulky alkoxides (dimethoxyethane then decoordinates for steric reasons), and this route was extended to Mo complexes ... 

---