Palladium compounds reactions with isocyanides

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)]. 

Activation of two Si—Si bonds in bis(disilanyl)alkanes with palladium(O) bis(tert-alkyl isocyanide) induced the formation of the cyclic bis(silyl)palladium(II) bis(terf-alkyl isocyanide) complexes (100) and disilanes described schematically in Scheme 42. These complexes were found to react with phenylacetylene, affording different amounts of five-membered cyclic products and acyclic products which are derived from the insertion of the alkyne into the general intermediate complex 101 (Scheme 42, equation 54). The bis(silanyl)dithiane palladium complex (102) was isolated and characterized in the solid state the two silicon atoms, the two isocyano carbons and the palladium atom are nearly in a plane with a short cross-ring Si—Si distance of 2.613(2) A, suggesting the possibility of covalently bonded two Si—Si atoms in the four-membered ring. Similar reaction with cyclic disilanes afforded oligomers, and cyclic 20-membered compounds have been prepared in the presence of nitriles248,249. 

Cocyclization of acetylene with isocyanides gives interesting new cyclic compounds 103, 116). The reaction patterns are generally similar to the cocyclization wdth carbon monoxide which is already known 103, 117). Low-valent nickel, palladium, or cobalt complexes are active in the following reactions 102, 103) for which intervention of acetylene complexes has been suggested ... 

---