Ruthenium complex catalysts reaction rates

A recent study showed that 152 behaves mechanistically different from other catalysts in addition reactions of more activated halides 140, such as trichloroacetate to styrene [222]. After initial reduction to Ru(II), chlorine abstraction from substrates 140 is in contrast to all other ruthenium complexes not the rate limiting step (cf. Fig. 36). ESR spectroscopic investigations support this fact. The subsequent addition to styrene becomes rate limiting, while the final ligand transfer step is fast and concentration-independent. For less activated substrates 140, however, chlorine abstraction becomes rate-determining again. Moreover, the Ru(III) complex itself can enter an, albeit considerably slower Ru(III)-Ru(IV) Kharasch addition cycle, when the reaction was performed in the absence of magnesium. This cycle operates, however, for only the most easily reducible halides, such as trichloroacetate. 

No evidence of ruthenium metal formation was found in catalytic reactions until temperatures above about 265°C (at 340 atm) were reached. The presence of Ru metal in such runs could be easily characterized by its visual appearance on glass liners and by the formation of hydrocarbon products (J/1J) The actual catalyst involved in methyl and glycol acetate formation is therefore almost certainly a soluble ruthenium species. In addition, the observation of predominantly a mononuclear complex under reaction conditions in combination with a first-order reaction rate dependence on ruthenium concentration (e.g., see reactions 1 and 3 in Table I) strongly suggests that the catalytically active species is mononuclear. 

In the transition metal-catalyzed reactions described above, the addition of a small quantity of base dramatically increases the reaction rate [17-21]. A more elegant approach is to include a basic site into the catalysts, as is depicted in Scheme 20.13. Noyori and others proposed a mechanism for reactions catalyzed with these 16-electron ruthenium complexes (30) that involves a six-membered transition state (31) [48-50]. The basic nitrogen atom of the ligand abstracts the hydroxyl proton from the hydrogen donor (16) and, in a concerted manner, a hydride shift takes place from the a-position of the alcohol to ruthenium (a), re-... 

This finding is the consequence of the distribution of various ruthenium(II) hydrides in aqueous solutions as a function of pH [RuHCl(mtppms)3] is stable in acidic solutions, while under basic conditions the dominant species is [RuH2(mtppms)4] [10, 11]. A similar distribution of the Ru(II) hydrido-species as a function of the pH was observed with complexes of the related p-monosulfo-nated triphenylphosphine, ptpprns, too [116]. Nevertheless, the picture is even more complicated, since the unsaturated alcohol saturated aldehyde ratio depends also on the hydrogen pressure, and selective formation of the allylic alcohol product can be observed in acidic solutions (e.g., at pH 3) at elevated pressures of H2 (10-40 bar [117, 120]). (The effects of pH on the reaction rate of C = 0 hydrogenation were also studied in detail with the [IrCp (H20)3]2+ and [RuCpH(pta)2] catalyst precursors [118, 128].)... 

Other Ruthenium Catalysts. Ru3(CO)i2 readily dissolved in piperidine to give a solution effective for catalytic carbonylation of the amine. The uptake plots resemble those shown in Figure 1 (curves B-E), and the maximum rate given in Table I refers to the initial rate. Attempts to characterize the ruthenium complexes formed from reaction of the dodecacarbonyl with amines have been unsuccessful. 

The Kharasch addition reactions promoted by [RuCl2(PPh3)3] are believed to proceed through a redox chain mechanism (Eqs. 1-3) [ 16]. Their kinetics show a first-order dependence both on the ruthenium complex and on CC14. Whereas no clear-cut evidence for alkene coordination to the metal was found with catalyst precursor 1 (which readily loses one phosphine ligand), olefin coordination cannot be excluded because there is a saturation kinetic rate dependence on the alkene. This observation led to the proposal of a reversible step involving olefin coordination to the metal center [ 16,19,20]. Recent work with other ruthenium-based catalysts further supports olefin coordination (see later). 

Many ruthenium complexes have been tested in the silylative coupling reaction. In the synthetic procedure the absence of by-products of the homocoupling of vinylsilanes is required so an excess of the olefin has usually been used. However, the screening tests performed at the 1 1 ratio of styrene and phenyldimethylvinylsilane with a variety of ruthenium catalysts have shown that pentacoordinated monocarbonyl bisphosphine complexes appear to be the most active and selective catalysts of which RuHCl(CO)(PCy3)2 has shown high catalytic activity under conditions of catalyst loadings as low as 0.05 mol % [55]. Cuprous salts (chloride, bromide) have recently been reported to be very successful co-catalysts of ruthenium phosphine complexes, markedly increasing the rate and selectivities of all ruthenium phosphine complexes [54]. 

Following on from this initial publication of Backvall, many groups have reported on a variety of ruthenium-based systems for the DKR of secondary alcohols [9-17] mainly with the goal of eliminating the need for added base and ketone and reducing the reaction time by increasing the rate of racemization. Some examples of ruthenium complexes (1-8) which have been used as the racemization catalysts in these systems are depicted in Fig. 9.5. 

In an extension of this work, either zinc(II), palladium(II), rhodium(I) or copper(I) salts were immobilised in an ionic liquid film (SILP, vide supra) onto diatomic earth and the catalysts tested for activity in the reaction between phenylacetylene and 4-isopropyl-phenylaminc.1 391401 The supported rhodium, ruthenium and zinc complexes afford higher rates and selectivities relative to their use under homogenous reaction conditions. Lower rates are, however, observed with the copper salt, which is rationalised by strong complexation of the ionic liquid to the Cu(I) centre. 

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