Phosphines, alkylation metal catalyzed arylation

Modified cobalt complexes of the type frans-Co2(CO)6(phosphine)2 are promising candidates for certain transition metal-catalyzed reactions, in particular for the hydroformylation of long-chained olefins [117]. A series of complexes Co2(CO)6[P(alkyl) (aryl)m]2 (n 0,1,2,3 m S - n) was synthesized and used for solubility measurements. Since the basicity of phosphines affects the catalytic activity, use of fluorous substituents might induce unexpected changes in the activity. Therefore, also derivatives with an additional ethyl spacer between the fluorous group and the phosphine moiety were examined (Sect. 3.1). 

To this end, monodentate phosphine or bidentate PX (X=P, N, O) ligands have usually been employed as ancillary ligands for transition-metal-catalyzed reactions, with bulky tertiary alkyl phosphines proving particularly effective. Significant advances have been achieved in the use of less active aryl chlorides (bond strength C-Cl>C-Br>C-I) as chemical feedstock [5], with a number of processes mediated by palladium-bulky phosphine systems. This success is often explained by the effect of bulk and electron richness at the metal center along the catalytic cycle depicted in Fig. 1 [6]. 

Several other mechanistically distinct metal-catalyzed dearomatization procedures have been reported, and almost all involve phenol or naphthol derivatives undergoing dearomatization via intramolecular transformations. Intramolecular Pd- and Rh-catalyzed C4-arylation and alkylation of /)ara-substituted phenols has been used to construct compounds of general structure 82 (Fig. 15.1) [86]. These reactions rely on generation of electrophilic aryl or alkyl o-metal complex intermediates that participate in tandem C4 metalation-reductive elimination with an attached phenol. Ruthenium- and Pt-catalyzed reactions of naphthalenes and alkynes deliver spirocyclic products such as 83 [87, 88]. An asymmetric intramolecular naphthalene dearomatization catalyzed by Pd(0)-phosphine complexes has been used to prepare carbazole derivatives 84 in good enantiomeric excess from l-(AI-2-bromophenyl)aminonaphthalene precursors [89]. 

It has been found in the meantime that reaction (1) is generalizable (752), and that oxidative additions of this type occur for such widely differing substrates H2Y as ethylene, benzene 130), cyclic olefins, alkyl and aryl phosphines, aniline 337, 406), and H2S 130), ail of which give the same product structure with a triply-bridging Y ligand. The stability of these third-row transition metal clusters has stiU prevented catalytic reactions of these species, but it is likely that similar ones are involved in olefin and acetylene reactions catalyzed by other metal complexes. 

A proposed mechanism [9] for the hydrosilylation of olefins catalyzed by platinum(II) complexes (chloroplatinic acid is thought to be reduced to a plati-num(II) species in the early stages of the catalytic reaction) is similar to that for the rhodium(I) complex-catalyzed hydrogenation of olefins, which was advanced mostly by Wilkinson and his co-workers [10]. Besides the Speier s catalyst, it has been shown that tertiary phosphine complexes of nickel [11], palladium [12], platinum [13], and rhodium [14] are also effective as catalysts, and homogeneous catalysis by these Group VIII transition metal complexes is our present concern. In addition, as we will see later, hydrosilanes with chlorine, alkyl or aryl substituents on silicon show their characteristic reactivities in the metal complex-catalyzed hydrosilylation. Therefore, it seems appropriate to summarize here briefly recent advances in elucidation of the catalysis by metal complexes, including activation of silicon-hydrogen bonds. 

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