Rhodium thioethers

In 2004, a series of other chiral thioether-phosphine ligands based on a cyclopropane backbone were evaluated in the rhodium-catalysed hydrogenation of a dehydroamino acid by Molander el al As shown in Scheme 8.2, even if these ligands were generally active, only moderate enantioselectivities of up to 47% ee were obtained. 

In general, of the mixed phosphorus-thioether ligands that have been used in the asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral olefins, the thioether-phosphinite ligands have provided some of the best results. As an example, a new class of thioether-phosphinite ligands developed by Evans et al. has recently proved to be very efficient for the rhodium-catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation of a... 

In 2000, Claver et al. reported the synthesis of novel chiral S/P ligands with a xylofuranose backbone. These thioether-phosphite ligands derived from carbohydrates were investigated for the rhodium-catalysed hydroformylation of styrene but, in spite of good conversions (>99%) combined with excellent... 

Another approach in the use of chiral S/P ligands for the hydrosilylation reaction of ketones was proposed more recently by Evans et Thus, in 2003, these workers studied the application of new chiral thioether-phosphinite ligands to enantioselective rhodium-catalysed ketone hydrosilylation processes. For a wide variety of ketones, such as acyclic aryl alkyl and dialkyl ketones as well as cyclic aryl alkyl ketones and also cyclic keto esters, the reaction gave high levels of enantioselectivity of up to 99% ee (Scheme 10.44). 

An unusual carbene-thioether hybrid ligand 174 was synthesized and applied in the rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of dimethyl itaconate by Chung and co-workers however, the selectivity and activity were low (Table 27.7, entry 34) [135]. 

The first example of an intermolecular enantioselective rhodium-catalyzed aUylic alkylation, relying on the phosphito-thioether ligands 58 and 59 and the P,N-ligand 60 (Scheme 10.12), was reported by Pregosin and co-workers in 1999 [55]. The in-situ... 

Numerous studies have been directed toward expanding the chemistry of the donor/ac-ceptor-substituted carbenoids to reactions that form new carbon-heteroatom bonds. It is well established that traditional carbenoids will react with heteroatoms to form ylide intermediates [5]. Similar reactions are possible in the rhodium-catalyzed reactions of methyl phenyldiazoacetate (Scheme 14.20). Several examples of O-H insertions to form ethers 158 [109, 110] and S-H insertions to form thioethers 159 [111] have been reported, while reactions with aldehydes and imines lead to the stereoselective formation of epoxides 160 [112, 113] and aziridines 161 [113]. The use of chiral catalysts and pantolactone as a chiral auxiliary has been explored in many of these reactions but overall the results have been rather moderate. Presumably after ylide formation, the rhodium complex disengages before product formation, causing degradation of any initial asymmetric induction. 

The comparison of thiophene with thioethers on the one hand and with enol thioethers on the other, in regard to its behaviour towards conventional electrophiles, has been made in Section 3.02.2.3. Attack on carbon is the predominant mode of reaction (Section 3.14.2.4) reaction at sulfur is relatively rare (Section 3.14.2.5). Carbenes are known to act as electrophiles attack at both carbon and sulfur of thiophene has been reported. The carbene generated from diazomalonic ester by rhodium(II) catalysis attacks the sulfur atom of thiophene, resulting in an ylide. It has also been shown that the carbenoid species derived by thermolysis of such an ylide functions as an electrophile, attacking the a-carbon of a second molecule of thiophene (Section 3.14.2.9). Singlet nitrene is electrophilic. However, in contrast to carbenes, it invariably attacks only the carbon atom (Section 3.14.2.9). 

Emslie also reported the ability of the related rigid phosphine-thioether-borane ligand 32 (referred to as PSB) to engage in bridging P-M-Cl-B interaction upon coordination to rhodium and palladium precursors (Scheme 52).7, 76... 

Efforts to optimize rhodium-based systems for methanol carbonylation led to the development of new supporting ligands containing phosphorus and sulfur donor atoms, both thiolates and thioethers, such as those used in the preparation of complexes (20) and (21). Ligands such as 2-diphenylphosphinothiolate have been shown to give rise to complexes that exhibit higher activities, up to four times faster, for the carbonylation of methanol compared to [Rh(CO)2l2] . ... 

A Cr(VI) sulfoxide complex has been postulated after interaction of [CrOjtClj] with MejSO (385), but the complex was uncharacterized as it was excessively unstable. It was observed that hydrolysis of the product led to the formation of dimethyl sulfone. The action of hydrogen peroxide on mesityl ferrocencyl sulfide in basic media yields both mesityl ferrocenyl sulfoxide (21%) and the corresponding sulfone (62%) via a reaction similar to the Smiles rearrangement (165). Catalytic air oxidation of sulfoxides by rhodium and iridium complexes has been observed. Rhodium(III) and iridium(III) chlorides are catalyst percursors for this reaction, but ruthenium(III), osmium(III), and palladium(II) chlorides are not (273). The metal complex and sulfoxide are dissolved in hot propan-2-ol/water (9 1) and the solution purged with air to achieve oxidation. The metal is recovered as a noncrystalline, but still catalytically active, material after reaction (272). The most active precursor was [IrHClj(S-Me2SO)3], and it was observed that alkyl sulfoxides oxidize more readily than aryl sulfoxides, while thioethers are not oxidized as complex formation occurs. 

T he expectation that, by analogy to phosphines, thioethers should function as tt acceptor ligands and thereby stabilize low oxidation state compounds, led several investigators to try to synthesize thioether complexes of rhodium (I). Walton (I) treated [Rh(DTH)Cl2]Cl (DTH = CH3SCH2CH2SCH3) with ethanolic potassium hydroxide, a reducing system developed by Chatt and Shaw (2), but he failed to obtain a complex of the expected type. Attempts to obtain rhodium(I) derivatives by reducing [Rh(DTH)2Cl.]Cl with sodium borohydride or by electrochemical methods were equally unsuccessful. 

The formation of the stable adduct with the Lewis acid BF3 established the enhanced basicity of the Rh(I) in Rh(TTP) over that of the previously known Rh(l)-phosphine complexes. Although [Ir(PPh3)-(CO)Cl] adds BF3, the rhodium analog does not (17). A stronger Lewis acid, e.g. BBrs or BCI3, is required for an observable interaction with [Rh(PPh3)(CO)Cl] (18). Indeed, the only other Rh(I) complex known to form a stable BF3 adduct is chloro-bis(3-diphenylphosphino-propyl)phenylphosphine rhodium(I) (19). The enhanced nucleophilicity of the rhodium in [Rh(TTP)] is considered as evidence of the poor TT-acceptor qualities of the sulfur atoms in the thioether ligand as compared with those of the phosphorus atoms in their similar complexes. 

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