Reactivity of Vinylidene Complexes

Vinylidene complexes are electrophilic at the a-carbon. Therefore, they display reactivity more similar to that of Fischer-type carbene complexes than to that of Schrock-type carbene complexes. This trend fits with lire greater stability of the singlet spin state (and therefore higher HOMO-LUMO gap) of the free carbene in most Fischer carbene complexes and in vinylidenes. This trend also fits with the low oxidation state of the metal in most Fischer carbene complexes and vinylidene complexes. At the same time, some reactivity of vinylidine complexes is unique to those containing the cumulated unsaturation of a vinylidene unit. For example, the 3-carbon of a vinylidene ligand is nucleophilic and basic. 

The basicity at the 3-carbon is illustrated by the reactions in Equations 13.26 and 13.27. Reaction of the octahedral rhenium vinylidene in Equation 13.26 with HBF generates the cationic carbyne complex from addition of a proton to the basic 3-carbon. Because low-valent metals are often basic, addition of a proton to the vinylidene 3-carbon is likely to occur by a multi-step process initiated by protonation of the metal center. This initial protonation at the metal center would then be followed by migration of the proton to the 3-carbon. The reaction of acid with the iridium vinylidene in Equation 13.27 illustrates this mechanism. In this case, protonation first generates an iridium-hydride complex. The hydride in this complex tlien migrates to the p-carbon to generate an alkylidyne complex.  

In some cases, vinylidene complexes undergo [2-t-2] reactions that are characteristic of Fischer and Schrock carbene complexes. However, these [2+2] reactions involving vinylidene complexes can result from nucleophilic addition at the central carbon, rather than a concerted [2+2] process. For example, the reaction of an imine with the iron-vinylidene complex in Equation 13.28 leads to formation the product of a [2+2] reaction between the carbon-nitrogen double bond and the carbon-carbon double bond. ° - This reaction is believed to occur by nucleophilic attack of the nitrogen at the central carbon, followed by ring closure at the p-carbon, instead of a concerted [2+2] process. 

As mentioned in earlier sections of this chapter, alkylidene complexes are crucial intermediates in olefin metathesis, and this process occurs by sequential [2+2] reactions of olefins or alkynes with the metal-carbene complex. Catalytic metathesis of olefins and 

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Various modes of reactivity of vinylidene complexes are illustrated in Scheme 1. The first four modes of reactivity shown in Scheme 1 are (1) simple substitution of the ligands bound to the metal [6] (2) oxidation of the metal [7] (3) modification or exchange of a vinylidene substituent [8] and (4) transfer of the vinylidene ligand [9]. The last two modes... 

The number of known, isolated and characterized complexes depends strongly on the length of the chain and drastically decreases with the number of carbon atoms in the chain. A great number of vinylidene complexes of many metals, with different terminal substituents R and various co-ligands have been synthesized and the reactivity has been studied extensively. At present, the solid-state structure of more than 230 vinylidene complexes has been determined by X-ray structure analyses. The number of isolated allenylidene complexes is somewhat smaller. 

In this chapter, we first analyzed the electronic structures of metal vinylidene and allenylidene complexes. The electronic structures allow us to understand the reactivities of these complexes. For metal vinylidene complexes of the Fischer-type, nucleophilic attack usually occurs at the a-carbon and electrophilic attack at the P-carbon. For the corresponding metal allenylidenes, electrophilic attack occurs at the P-carbon and/or the metal center. Then we briefly reviewed the theoretical study of the barriers ofrotation ofvinylidene ligands in various flve-coordinate complexes M (X) C1(=C=CHR)L2 (M = Os, Ru L = phosphine). The study showed that 7t-acceptor ligands (X), electron-withdrawing substituents and lighter metals gave smaller barriers. 

Most efforts to explore the reactivity of ruthenium carbene complexes have employed the alkoxycarbene species so readily synthesized from the inter- or intramolecular reaction of vinylidene complexes with alcohols. These electrophilic alkoxycarbene complexes exhibit only limited reactivity at Ca, primarily with hydride reagents. For example, treatment of the 2-oxacyclopentylidene complex 97 with NaAlH2(OCH2CH2OMe)2 affords the neutral 2-tetrahydrofuranyl complex (98) [Eq. (89)] (55), as was anticipated from similar reductions of iron carbene complexes (87). 

T he free radical initiated polymerization of polar monomers containing pendant nitrile and carbonyl groups—e.g., acrylonitrile and methyl methacrylate—in the presence of metal halides such as zinc chloride and aluminum chloride, is characterized by increased rates of polymerization (2, 3, 4, 5,10, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 53, 55, 65, 66, 75, 76, 77, 87). Imoto and Otsu (30, 33, 34) have attributed this effect to the formation of a complex between the polar group and the metal halide. The enhanced reactivity of the complexed monomer extends to copolymerization with uncomplexed monomers, such as vinylidene chloride, which are readily responsive to... 

The most significant observation in the radical copolymerization of methyl methacrylate with vinylidene chloride in the presence of zinc chloride is the increase in the Q and e values of methyl methacrylate, the increase in the rx value of methyl methacrylate, and the decrease in the r2 value of vinylidene chloride (30). Although it has been proposed that these results arise from the increased reactivity of the complexed methyl methacrylate monomer, a more likely explanation is the homopolymerization of a methyl methacrylate-complexed methyl methacrylate complex accompanied by the copolymerization of methyl methacrylate with vinylidene chloride. 

Vinylidene and carbyne complexes also offer a rich chemistry following electron transfer, and a comprehensive review on that topic is available in the literature.As an example, oxidation of vinylidene complexes generates highly reactive radical cations. These may undergo a host of different follow-up reactions and they are summarised in Scheme 6.10. Possible follow reactions include dimerisation by direct Cp—Cp homocoupling to dinuclear butanediyli-dyne complexes M " =C—CRH—CRH—deprotonation to 17 valence-electron alkynyl radicals M —C=CR, which subsequently dimerise to the corresponding bis(vinylidenes) (= 1,3-butadiene-1,4-diylidene derivatives) M = C = CR-CR = C = C Mf and CH-bond homolysis. The latter... 

Reaction of the carbonyl complex 26 with the mercury diazomethane 27 gives the highly reactive 17e intermediate carbyne complex 28 which dimerizes to form the / -biscarbyne complex 30. In this case, the intermediate terminal carbyne complex 28 has been trapped by reaction with the mercury diazomethane 29 to form the cyclic vinylidene complex 31. 31 was also characterized by a single crystal X-ray structure analysis. 

Preparation and Stoichiometric Reactivity of Mononuclear Metal Vinylidene Complexes... 

Attempts to produce vinylidene in the free state result in rapid reversion to ethyne, with a lifetime of 10 ° s [1]. As with many reactive organic intermediates, however, vinylidene can be stabilized by complexation to a metal center, using the lone pair for coordination and thus preventing the reversion to ethyne. Most 1-aIkynes can be converted into the analogous vinylidene complexes by simple reactions with appropriate transition metal substrates (Equation 1.2) ... 

The stoichiometric reactivity of metal-vinylidene complexes will be covered in the following sequence ... 

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