Rhodium complexes oxidative reductive elimination

The cyclization did not work well with 4- or 6-carbon terminal aUcynols or with compounds containing nonterminal alkynes. The proposed mechanism involved initial oxidative addition of the OH group to the rhodium center with loss of CO and coordination of the pendant acetylene. Migratory insertion in a 5-exo-dig mode produces the coordinated cyclic vinyl ether, which could add an alcohol to the vinyl group and reductive elimination of the organic product regenerates the reactive metal complex. Alternatively, reductive elimination from the metal vinyl ether would produce a vinyl ether, which would be trapped by the alcoholic solvent (Scheme 14). 

The first step consists of the substitution of one of the ligands (L) of 18 by dioxane (39) in an oxidative addition (a) (Scheme 20.16). / -Elimination of 40 releases 2,3-dihydro-dioxine (41) and the 16-electron dihydrogen rhodium complex (42) (b). Alkene 43 coordinates to the vacant site of 42 (c) to give complex 44. A hydride insertion then takes place (d), affording complex 45. After a reductive elimination (e) of the product 46, the coordination of a ligand reconstitutes the Wilkinson-type catalyst (18). 

These authors propose as the mechanism for this reaction a reversible oxidative addition of the aryl-phosphido fragments to a low valent rhodium species. A facile aryl exchange has been described for complexes Pd(PPh3)2(C6H4CH3)I. The authors [35] suggest a pathway involving oxidative additions and reductive eliminations. The mechanism outlined below, however, can also explain the results of these two studies. 

Complexes 6 undergo the second migratory insertion in this scheme to form the acyl complexes 7. Complexes 7 can react either with CO to give the saturated acyl intermediates 8, which have been observed spectroscopically, or with H2 to give the aldehyde product and the unsaturated intermediates 3. The reaction with H2 involves presumably oxidative addition and reductive elimination, but for rhodium no trivalent intermediates have been observed. For iridium the trivalent intermediate acyl dihydrides have been observed [29], The Rh-acyl intermediates 8 have also been observed [26] and due to the influence of the more bulky acyl group, as compared to the hydride atom in 2e and 2a, isomer 8ae is the most abundant species. 

This sequence of events may be illustrated by the homogeneous hydrogenation of ethylene in (say) benzene solution by Wilkinson s catalyst, RhCl(PPh3)3 (Ph = phenyl, CeH5 omitted for clarity in cycle 18.10). In that square-planar complex, the central rhodium atom is stabilized in the oxidation state I by acceptance of excess electron density into the 3d orbitals of the triphenylphosphane ligands but is readily oxidized to rhodium (III), which is preferentially six coordinate. Thus, we have a typical candidate for a catalytic cycle of oxidative addition and subsequent reductive elimination ... 

Rate-determining step, hydroformylation, 163 Reactivity, enantiomers, 286 Recognition, enantiomers, 278 Reduction and oxidation, 5 Reductive coupling, dissolving metal, 288 Reductive elimination, 5, 111 Resolution. See Kinetic resolution Rhenium-carbene complexes, 288 Rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation, 17, 352 amino acid synthesis, 18, 352 BINAP, 20... 

The key features of both catalytic cycles are similar. Alkene coordination to the metal followed by insertion to yield an alkyl-metal complex and CO insertion to yield an acyl-metal complex are common to both catalytic cycles. The oxidative addition of hydrogen followed by reductive elimination of the aldehyde regenerates the catalyst (Scheme 2 and middle section of Scheme 1). The most distinct departure in the catalytic cycle for cobalt is the alternate possibility of a dinuclear elimination occurring by the in-termolecular reaction of the acylcobalt intermediate with hydridotetracarbonylcobalt to generate the aldehyde and the cobalt(0) dimer.11,12 In the cobalt catalytic cycle, therefore, the valence charges can be from +1 to 0 or +1 to +3, while the valence charges in the rhodium cycles are from +1 to +3. 

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