Rhodium catalysts early studies

High nuclearity carbonyls Rh4(CO)i2 and Rhs(CO)i6 have been extensively used as precursors for the preparation of supported rhodium catalysts. Early studies reported the use of a great variety of supports that includes metal oxides [159-166], zeolites [101, 167], polymers [168] and modified-silica surface [169]. 

Cyclopropanation reactions can be promoted using copper or rhodium catalysts or indeed systems based on other metals. As early as 1965 Nozaki showed that chiral copper complexes could promote asymmetric addition of a carbenoid species (derived from a diazoester) to an alkene. This pioneering study was embroidered by Aratani and co-workers who showed a highly enantioselective process could be obtained by modifying the chiral copper... 

The perfluoroacetamide catalysts, rhodium(II) trifluoroacetamidate [Rh2(tfm)4] and rhodium(II) perfluorobutyramidate [Rh2(pfbm)4], are interesting hybrid molecules that combine the features of the amidate and perfluorinated ligands. In early studies, these catalysts were shown to prefer insertion over cycloaddition [30]. They also demonstrated a preference for oxindole formation via aromatic C-H insertion [31], even over other potential reactions [86]. In still another example, rhodium(II) perfluorobutyramidate showed a preference for aromatic C-H insertion over pyridinium ylide formation, in the synthesis of an indole nucleus [32]. Despite this demonstrated propensity for aromatic insertion, the perfluorobutyramidate was shown to be an efficient catalyst for the generation of isomtinchnones [33]. The chemoselectivity of this catalyst was further demonstrated in the cycloaddition with ethyl vinyl ethers [87] and its application to diversity-oriented synthesis [88]. However, it was demonstrated that while diazo imides do form isomtinchnones under these conditions, the selectivity was completely reversed from that observed with rhodium(II) acetate [89, 90]. 

In 1952, it was discovered by Schiller that rhodium salts generated highly active hydroformylation catalysts. It was from these early studies that rhodium was estimated to be 1000 to 10 000 times more active than cobalt. Rhodium was also found to be very selective to aldehydes, with httle hydrogenation to alcohols observed under normal catalysis conditions. It was suggested early on that HRh(CO)4 was the active catalyst species, analogous to HCo(CO)4, and the same monometallic mechanism was proposed (Scheme 6). 

In order to appreciate the mechanism of rhodium asymmetric hydrogenation, it may be useful first to examine the simpler achiral case of alkene hydrogenation by Wilkinson s catalyst. In early studies [13] assumptions were made about the dihydrogen activation step which proved to be incorrect because of the direct... 

The first example of the use of a chiral catalyst for asymmetric cyclopropanation was published by Nozaki and co-workers in 1966 [32]. Although these early studies were characterized by low levels of enantiocontrol, they were the forerunner to recent discoveries which have established catalytic asymmetric cyclopropanation as a reliable method for producing a range of substituted cyclopropanes in high enantiomeric purity. The appHcation of chiral copper catalysts is discussed in Chapter 16.1 the emphasis here is on rhodium (II) catalysts. 

NH insertions were already known at the time of the exclusive use of copper catalysts for metal-carbene transformations, but, like CH insertions, they became important in synthesis only at the time of growing interest in rhodium catalysts. A breakthrough was the intramolecular carbenoid insertion into the NH bond of azetidin-2-one, catalyzed by [Rh2(OCOCH3)4] (8.127), as it was first described for the synthesis of thienamycin (8.140) by the group of Salzmann (1980) in the Merck laboratories. This synthesis (8-60) opened the way for many related pharmaceutical products of the carbapenem and the carbacephem type (see Maas, 1987, Table 21, p. 201). At an early date, the NH insertion of the parent compound 8.141 was studied... 

Early studies by Scurrell and coll, demonstrated the use of rhodium zeolites as catalysts for the carbonylation of methanol into methyl acetate in the presence of methyl iodide (65). It was hoped that due to their electrostatic field zeolites would effect the direct carbonylation of methanol without the help of the iodide promoter. In fact, as the CH3OH/CH3I ratio increased, increasing amounts of CH4 and CO2 were produced indicating that the reaction... 

Rhodium-Diphosphine Catalysts. The mechanism of rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation is one of the most intensively investigated and best understood. Reaction pathways have been accurately studied both experimentally and theoretically (138,162,213-221). In early studies, Halpern (222) and Brown (214) established that the hydrogenation proceeds according to the reaction sequence presented in Figure 51 for the hydrogenation of a dehydroamino acid with a chiral diphosphine-rhodium complex. Many variants on both catalyst and reactant have been described. Stereoselectivity takes place via the difference in reactivity of the involved diastereomeric square-planar... 

In spite of extensive studies on the asymmetric hydroformylation of olefins using chiral rhodium and platinum complexes as catalysts in early days, enantioselectivity had not exceeded 60% ee until the reaction of styrene catalyzed by PtCl2[DBP-DIOP (l)]/SnCl-> was reported to attain 95% ee in 1982 [8]. Although the value was corrected to 73% ee in 1983 [9], this result spurred further studies of the reaction in connection to possible commercial synthesis of antiinflammatory drugs such as (S)-ibuprofen and (S)-naproxen. The catalyst PtCl2[BPPM... 

The aziridination of olefins, which forms a three-membered nitrogen heterocycle, is one important nitrene transfer reaction. Aziridination shows an advantage over the more classic olefin hydroamination reaction in some syntheses because the three-membered ring that is formed can be further modified. More recently, intramolecular amidation and intermolecular amination of C-H bonds into new C-N bonds has been developed with various metal catalysts. When compared with conventional substitution or nucleophilic addition routes, the direct formation of C-N bonds from C-H bonds reduces the number of synthetic steps and improves overall efficiency.2 After early work on iron, manganese, and copper,6 Muller, Dauban, Dodd, Du Bois, and others developed different dirhodium carboxylate catalyst systems that catalyze C-N bond formation starting from nitrene precursors,7 while Che studied a ruthenium porphyrin catalyst system extensively.8 The rhodium and ruthenium systems are... 

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