Ruthenium, Rhodium, and Iridium

Much of the insight gained from computational and mechanistic studies into heteroatom-assisted C-H activation at Pd(ll) metal centers has proven to be apphcable to Ru(ll), Rh(lll), and Ir(III) systems. Therefore, only a brief overview of the most relevant computational studies of these processes will be presented. Computational studies of Ru-, Rh-, and Ir-catalyzed C-H functionalization reactions will then be described. Most of these target the synthesis or deriva-tization of heterocycle systems and also include a treatment of the initial C-H activation step. 

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Hydride Complexes of Ruthenium, Rhodium, and Iridium G. L. Geoffroy and J. R. Lehman Structures and Physical Properties of Polynuclear Carboxylates Janet Catterick and Peter Thornton... 

Hydrogenation of substrates having a polar multiple C-heteroatom bond such as ketones or aldehydes has attracted significant attention because the alcohols obtained by this hydrogenation are important building blocks. Usually ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium catalysts are used in these reactions [32-36]. Nowadays, it is expected that an iron catalyst is becoming an alternative material to these precious-metal catalysts. 

The dichlororuthenium arene dimers are conveniently prepared by refluxing ethanolic ruthenium trichloride in the appropriate cyclohexadiene [19]. The di-chloro(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) rhodium dimer is prepared by refluxing Dewar benzene and rhodium trichloride, whilst the dichloro(pentamethylcyclo-pentadienyl)iridium dimer is prepared by reaction of the cyclopentadiene with iridium trichloride [20]. Alternatively, the complexes can be purchased from most precious-metal suppliers. It should be noted that these ruthenium, rhodium and iridium arenes are all fine, dusty, solids and are potential respiratory sensitizers. Hence, the materials should be handled with great care, especially when weighing or charging operations are being carried out. Appropriate protective clothing and air extraction facilities should be used at all times. 

In addition to these examples, the late transition metals such as ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium have shown their effectiveness in catalyzing the PKR. In 1997, two groups independently showed that [Ru3(CO)i2] can catalyze the PKR. The group led by Murai reported the conditions that employ dioxane as a solvent " another group led by Mitsudo employed DM AC as a solvent." Both conditions required high pressure of CO (10-15 atm) and the scope is limited to the disubstituted alkynes. 

Azoles containing an acidic NH-group, e.g. 3,5-dimethylpyrazole, react with various alcohols in the presence of a catalytic amount of ruthenium-, rhodium-, and iridium-trialkylphosphite complexes to afford the corresponding A-alkyl derivatives with excellent yields (92CL575). Regioselective A-alkylation was achieved using alkenes and sulfuric acid (89JHC3). 

Tricyclohexylphosphine Complexes of Ruthenium, Rhodium, and Iridium and Their Reactivity Toward Gas Molecules... 

Tricyclohexylphosphine was obtained from Strem Chemicals. Ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium trichlorides were obtained as trihydrates from Johnson, Matthey Limited. Iridium tetrachloride was obtained from Platinum Chemicals. The precursor complexes [RhCl(COD)]2 (57), [RhCl(COT)2]2 (58), [RhCl(C2H4)2]2 (59), [IrCl(COD)]2 (14), and [HIrCl2-(COD)]2 (31) were made according to the literature procedures. 

We thank NATO for a grant which allowed us to initiate this work and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for subsequent financial support. Johnson, Matthey, Ltd. generously loaned us the ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium trichlorides. 

In the past, this field has been dominated by ruthenium, rhodium and iridium catalysts with extraordinary activities and furthermore superior enantioselectivities however, some investigations were carried out with iron catalysts. Early efforts were reported on the successful use of hydridocarbonyliron complexes HFcm(CO) as reducing reagent for a, P-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, dienes and C=N double bonds, albeit complexes were used in stoichiometric amounts [7]. The first catalytic approach was presented by Marko et al. on the reduction of acetone in the presence of Fe3(CO)12 or Fe(CO)5 [8]. In this reaction, the hydrogen is delivered by water under more drastic reaction conditions (100 bar, 100 °C). Addition of NEt3 as co-catalyst was necessary to obtain reasonable yields. The authors assumed a reaction of Fe(CO)5 with hydroxide ions to yield H Fe(CO)4 with liberation of carbon dioxide since basic conditions are present and exclude the formation of molecular hydrogen via the water gas shift reaction. H Fe(CO)4 is believed to be the active catalyst, which transfers the hydride to the acceptor. The catalyst presented displayed activity in the reduction of several ketones and aldehydes (Scheme 4.1) [9]. 

An important factor in the success of these reactions involves chelation-assistance by a heteroatom. Thus, the coordination of the heteroatom to the metal, brings the metal closer to the C-H bond and stabilizes the thermally unstable C-M-H species formed by the oxidative addition of a C-H bond to a low-valent transition metal complex. In addition, the use of the chelation-assistance leads to a high regioselectivity, which is an essential factor in organic synthesis. For reactions, a number of transition metal complexes - including ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium - are used as a catalyst, and ruthenium-catalyzed reactions will be described in this chapter [5]. 

A homogeneous catalytic solution to the alcohol inhibition problem (see the discussion under Uncatalyzed chain reactions of the oxidation of alcohol intermediates, above) does not appear to have been found. However, the presence of a heterogeneous oxidative dehydrogenation catalyst has been reported to be effective in the direct oxidation of alcohols to carbonyls and acids [109, 110]. The mechanism probably involves preliminaiy heterogeneous (oxidative) dehydrogenation of carbinols to carbonyls. If the carbonyl is an aldehyde, it is readily converted to the acid. Platinum, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium catalysts, supported on carbon, are reported to be active and selective catalysts for the purpose [109]. Promoters such as cobalt and cadmium have been reported to be effective additives. 

Third, n-allyl complexes are formed by palladium and cobalt analogous complexes of nickel and platinum are less stable, while ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium are not yet known to form them. In catalytic reactions the deuteration of cyclic paraffins over palladium has provided definite evidence for the existence of rr-bonded multiply unsaturated intermediates, while 7r-allylic species probably participate in the hydrogenation of 1,3-butadiene over palladium and cobalt, and of 1,2-cyclo-decadiene and 1,2-cyclononadiene over palladium. Here negative evidence is valuable platinum, for example does not form 7T-allylic complexes readily and the hydrogenation of 1,3-butadiene using platinum does not require the postulate that 7r-allylic intermediates are involved. Since both fields here are fairly well studied it is unlikely that this use of negative evidence will lead to contradiction in the light of future work. 

There have been multiple efforts toward supported catalysts for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation, and the 4 position on the aryl sulfonate group of 26 has proven a convenient site for functionalization. Thus far, this ligand has been supported on dendrimers [181,182], polystyrenes [183], silica gel [184], mesoporous siliceous foam [185], and mesoporous siliceous foam modified with magnetic particles [186]. The resulting modified ligands have been used in combination with ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium to catalyze the asymmetric transfer of imines and, more commonly, ketones. 

The catalytic [2 + 2 + 1]-cycloaddition reaction of two carbon—carbon multiple bonds with carbon monoxide has become a general synthetic method for five-membered cyclic carbonyl compounds. In particular, the Pauson-Khand reaction has been widely investigated and established as a powerful tool to synthesize cyclopentenone derivatives.110 Various kinds of transition metals, such as cobalt, titanium, ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium, are used as a catalyst for the Pauson-Khand reaction. The intramolecular Pauson-Khand reaction of the allyl propargyl ether and amine 91 produces the bicyclic ketones 93, which bear a heterocyclic ring as shown in Scheme 31. The reaction proceeds through formation of the bicyclic metallacyclopentene intermediate 92, which subsequently undergoes insertion of CO to give 93. 

Preliminary resnlts indeed show that ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium bind to apo-carbonic anhydrase, but they bind to many sites on the protein since we measured a metal-to-protein ratio of approximately seven. We hypothesize that the metals bind both to the active site and to the protein surface. Removing amino acids with electron donor atoms in the side chain (e.g., histidine) may restrict the binding to the active site and permit stereoselective catalysis [67]. 

Interesting electrical properties are to be expected with the stepwise extension of this TT-system. The preparation of multilayered cyclophanes proved to be laborious [6] nevertheless new synthetic methods in transition metal chemistry of arenes have opened up a promising alternative approach via preparation of multidecker sandwich complexes (structure type D in Fig. 3). First row transition metals like chromium, iron and cobalt [51] form strong coordinative bonds with arenes when their oxidation state is low [48a] whereas second and third row elements like ruthenium, rhodium and iridium are strongly bonded towards arenes in higher oxidation states [48a, 51]. Sandwich complexes of cyclophanes can be divided into two groups ... 

Scheme 1 Trinudear macrocycles containing organometallic halfsandwich complexes of ruthenium, rhodium and iridium can be obtained with the bridging ligands L1-L5...

The vast majority of methods are based on the use of palladium complexes as catalysts, although copper, ruthenium, rhodium and iridium catalysts have also been used. Progress in the understanding of the mechanisms of these reactions has only been made during the past few years. As comprehensive reviews have been recently published on aryl-aryl bond-formation reactions, covering both mechanistic and synthetic aspects of these reactions [3-7], in this chapter we wiU summarize only those mechanishc studies on metal-catalyzed arylation reactions that have been carried out in detail. 

Much effort has been devoted to developing catalysts that control the enantioselectiv-ity of these substitution reactions, as well as the regioselectivity of reactions that proceed through unsymmetrical allylic intermediates. A majority of this effort has been spent on developing palladium complexes as catalysts. Increasingly, however, complexes of molybdenum, tungsten, ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium have been studied as catalysts for enantioselective and regioselective processes. In parallel with these studies of allylic substitution catalyzed by complexes of transition metals, studies on allylic substitution catalyzed by complexes of copper have been conducted. These reactions often occur to form products of Sj 2 substitution. As catalylic allylic substitution has been developed, this process has been applied in many different ways to the synthesis of natural products. ... 

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