Palladium complexes, square planar ligands

A logical extension of the condensation reactions which yield multidentate nitrogen donors is the formation of macrocyclic ligands. The preference of palladium for square planar coordination makes it an ideal metal for the formation of complexes of these ligands. Thus palladium porphyrins are very stable and resistant to demetallation.281 Both 14- and 16-atom macrocycles have been used to form complexes. The ligand l,8-dihydro-5,7,12,14-tetramethyl-dibenzo[b,i][l,4,8,ll]tetraaza[14]annulene reacts with [PdCl2(PhCN)2] to yield the complex (46). 

Square planar complexes of palladium(II) and platinum(II) readily undergo ligand substitution reactions. Those of palladium have been studied less but appear to behave similarly to platinum complexes, though around five orders of magnitude faster (ascribable to the relative weakness of the bonds to palladium). 

Like palladium(II) and platinum(II), gold(III) has the d8 electronic configuration and is, therefore, expected to form square planar complexes. The d-orbital sequence for complexes like AuC14 is dx2 yi dxy > dvz, dxz > dzi in practice in a complex, most of these will have some ligand character. 

Substantially more work has been done on reactions of square-planar nickel, palladium, and platinum alkyl and aryl complexes with isocyanides. A communication by Otsuka et al. (108) described the initial work in this area. These workers carried out oxidative addition reactions with Ni(CNBu )4 and with [Pd(CNBu )2] (. In a reaction of the latter compound with methyl iodide the complex, Pd(CNBu )2(CH3)I, stable as a solid but unstable in solution, was obtained. This complex when dissolved in toluene proceeds through an intermediate believed to be dimeric, which then reacts with an additional ligand L (CNBu or PPh3) to give PdL(CNBu )- C(CH3)=NBu I [Eq. (7)]. 

In 2005, Carretero et al. reported a second example of chiral catalysts based on S/P-coordination employed in the catalysis of the enantioselective Diels-Alder reaction, namely palladium complexes of chiral planar l-phosphino-2-sulfenylferrocenes (Fesulphos). This new family of chiral ligands afforded, in the presence of PdCl2, high enantioselectivities of up to 95% ee, in the asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene with A-acryloyl-l,3-oxazolidin-2-one (Scheme 5.17). The S/P-bidentate character of the Fesulphos ligands has been proved by X-ray diffraction analysis of several metal complexes. When the reaction was performed in the presence of the corresponding copper-chelates, a lower and opposite enantioselectivity was obtained. This difference of results was explained by the geometry of the palladium (square-planar) and copper (tetrahedral) complexes. 

Insertion of alkenes. Alkene insertions have also been widely studied and many insertion products have been isolated [31], Alkene insertions follow a migratory mechanism in the palladium and platinum square planar complexes with diphosphine ligands [18],... 

The active species in the catalytic cycles are square-planar Pd complexes of the formula [Pd (X)(S)(L-L)]Y where L-L is a chelating ligand with the same or different donor atoms among P, N, O and S X is the growing polyketone chain or hydride S may be a solvent molecule, a co-monomer, or a keto group from the chain. Finally, Y is a counter-anion of weak nucleophilicity in order to avoid competition with the co-monomer for coordination to palladium (Scheme 7.1). 

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