Other Hydrometallations

The addition of metal-hydrogen bonds across carbon-carbon multiple bonds, called hydrometallations, are very important, versatile transformations in organic synthesis. First, they allow the synthesis of new organometallic compounds. The products thus formed may be further transformed into other valuable compounds. The two most important reactions, hydroboration and hydrosilylation, will be treated here in detail, whereas other hydrometallation reactions (hydroalanation, hydro-zirconation) will be discussed only briefly. Hydrostannation, a very important transformation of substituted unsaturated compounds, has no significance in the chemistry of hydrocarbons possessing nonactivated multiple bonds. 

Addition of hydrosilane to alkenes, dienes and alkynes is called hydrosilylation, or hydrosilation, and is a commercially important process for the production of many organosilicon compounds. As related reactions, silylformylation of alkynes is treated in Section 7.1.2, and the reduction of carbonyl compounds to alcohols by hydrosilylation is treated in Section 10.2. Compared with other hydrometallations discussed so far, hydrosilylation is sluggish and proceeds satisfactorily only in the presence of catalysts [214], Chloroplatinic acid is the most active catalyst and the hydrosilylation of alkenes catalysed by E PtCU is operated commercially [215]. Colloidal Pt is said to be an active catalytic species. Even the internal alkenes 558 can be hydrosilylated in the presence of a Pt catalyst with concomitant isomerization of the double bond from an internal to a terminal position to give terminal silylalkanes 559. The oxidative addition of hydrosilane to form R Si—Pt—H 560 is the first step of the hydrosilylation, and insertion of alkenes to the Pt—H bond gives 561, and the alkylsilane 562 is obtained by reductive elimination. 

As far as the role of the transition metal catalysts in the hydromagnesiation is concerned, other hydrometallation reactions such as hydroa-lumination 1108] and the recently reported hydro-zincation 1109) are catalyzed by the same class of titanium complexes, so all of these reactions can be grouped together. In fact, these reactions show quite similar applicabilities to particular unsaturated compounds and similar rcgioselcctivi-ties with unsymmetrical substrates (eqs. 3.64 and 3.65). 

D. PALLADIUM-CATALYZED HYDROBORATION, HYDROALUMINATION,AND OTHER HYDROMETALLATION REACTIONS OF MAIN GROUP METALS... 

A variety of routes are available for the preparation of allylsilanes (/) with the simplest and most direct being the silylation of allyl-metal species. Other routes exemplified in this chapter include Wittig methodology, the use of silyl anions/anionoids in allylic substitution, and hydrometallation of... 

In marked contrast to the other hetero atom multiple bond functions cited in this section the >C=N- imine bond was not found to undergo hydrometalation. Imines with neighboring C-H bonds as in PhCH=NMe do react with 1 via imine/enamine tautomerism, but not by hydrozirconation [197]. 

Deliberate production of (vinyl)polystyrene from (toluenesul-foxyethyl)polystyrene or (haloethyl)polystyrenes was best accomplished by quaternization with N,N-dimethylaminoethanol, followed by treatment with base beta-deprotonation is encouraged in the cyclic zwitterionic intermediate. Reaction was faster and cleaner than with other reagents recommended (64, 76, 77) for eliminations, such as alkoxide, diazabicycloundecene or quaternary ammonium hydroxide this new and efficient procedure may find application elsewhere. Hydrometallation or other additions to polymer-bound olefin may prove useful steps in future syntheses by polymer modification. 

In principle, carbometallation of an alkene (RCH=CH2) with a coordinatively unsaturated organotransition metal compound (R1 M I. ) can produce a monomeric carbometallation product 1 (Scheme 6). This reaction may not, however, stop at this stage. It can be accompanied by other processes of which (i) hydrogen-transfer hydrometallation to produce a potentially thermodynamically more favorable mixture of a 1,1-disubstituted alkene and a hydrometallation product 2 and (ii) polymerization to produce polyalkenes 3 are representative. The extents to which these side-reactions occur are functions of relative rates of various competing processes. For example, accumulation of the monomeric carbometallation product 1 can be favored in cases where the starting R1 MTL is more reactive toward alkenes than 1. The organometal/alkene ratio is also an important parameter, since neither of the two side-reactions can proceed after all of the starting alkene has reacted. 

In addition to transition metals, recent work has demonstrated that strong Lewis acids will catalyze the addition of silanes to alkynes in both an intra- and an intermolecular fashion.14,14a-14c The formation of vinylsilanes from alkynes is possible by other means as well, such as the synthetically important and useful silylcupration15,15a of alkynes followed by cuprate protonation to afford vinylsilanes. These reactions provide products which can be complementary in nature to direct hydrometallation. Alternatively, modern metathesis catalysts have made possible direct vinylsilane synthesis from terminal olefins.16,16a... 

The impetus for the development of gem-bimetallics was initially to discover alkylidene-transfer reagents akin to Tebbe s reagent [14]. Schwartz prepared bimetallic aluminum—zirconocene derivatives by the hydrometallation of various vinyl metallic compounds [15—17]. Knochel has developed zinc—zirconium gem-bimetallics by hydrozircona-tion of vinylzincs and has used them as alkylidene-transfer reagents [18], More recently, other gem-bimetallics have been developed that exhibit different reactivities of the two carbon—metal bonds. Thus, Normant and Marek have reported the allylmetallation of vinyl metals to afford zinc—magnesium and zinc—lithium gem-bimetallics, which react selectively with various electrophiles such as ClSnBu3, H20, etc. [19, and references cited therein]. However, selective and sequential cleavage of the two carbon—metal bonds... 

In view of the extensive documentation outlined above, the usefulness of the polarity alternation concept as a primary guide for evaluation of substituent effects can hardly be denied. The influence of a substituent on the ipso site has not been discussed in this article but an even more direct and important effect is implicit. Among the innumerable examples one may cite the preferential formation of geminal dimetallic species [5] in hydrometalation and carbometalation of vinylmetals and acetylenes. On the other hand, chemical systems are usually very complex, inter- and intramolecular forces including steric and stereoelectronic factors may dominate over polarity alternation. Thus, chelation by a proximal donor often directs metalation and stabilizes certain organometallic entities. In these instances the stability gaining from polarity alternation is overwhelmed. 

In this chapter, recent advances in asymmetric hydrosilylations promoted by chiral transition-metal catalysts will be reviewed, which attained spectacular increase in enantioselectivity in the 1990s [1], After our previous review in the original Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis, which covered literature through the end of 1992 [2], various chiral Pn, Nn, and P-N type ligands have been developed extensively with great successes. In addition to common rhodium and palladium catalysts, other new chiral transition-metal catalysts, including Ti and Ru complexes, have emerged. This chapter also discusses catalytic hydrometallation reactions other than hydrosily-lation such as hydroboration and hydroalumination. 

Dienes have been synthesized by cross-coupling of alkenes and alkynes involving other types of mechanisms, such as initial hydrometallation or C-H bond activation. 

The mechanisms of the two key steps are worth discussion. Hydrometallation occurs by initial n-complex formation followed by addition of the metal to one end of the alkene and hydrogen to the other. Both of these regioisomers are formed. The carbonyl insertion reaction is another migration from the metal to the carbon atom of a CO ligand. 

The reverse process, decarbonylation, is also fast but can be arrested by maintaining a pressure of carbon monoxide above the reaction mixture. The reverse of hydrometallation involves the elimination of a hydride from the adjacent carbon of a metal alkyl to form an alkene complex. This process is known as [3-hydride elimination or simply [3 elimination. It requires a vacant site on the metal as the number of ligands increases in the process and so is favoured by a shortage of ligands as in 16-electron complexes. The metal and the hydride must be syn to each other on the carbon chain for the elimination to be possible. The product is an alkene complex that can lose the neutral alkene simply by ligand exchange. So (3 elimination is an important final step in a number of transition-metal-catalysed processes but can be a nuisance because, say, Pd-Et complexes cannot be used as p elimination is too fast. 

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