Selenolates metal complexes

The aim of this chapter is to review the chemistry of chalcogenolates in the last 10 years. The more recent reviews in this field included chalcogenolates of the s-block elements,13,14 early transition metal thiolates,15 metal complexes with selenolate and tellurolate ligands,16 copper(I), lithium and magnesium thiolates,17 functionalized thiolate complexes,18 19 pentafluorobenzenethiolate platinum group compounds,20 tellurium derivatives,21 luminescent gold compounds,22 and complexes with lanthanide or actinide.23... 

Arnold, John, The Chemistry of Metal Complexes with Selenolate and... 

It has long been known that thiolate ligands (RS ), which are formally derived from thiols (RSH) by deprotonation, are well suited to form metal complexes (1). Specific reviews of this area have covered the structural chemistry of metal thiolates (la), the coordination chemistry of metal thiolates from a bioinorganic perspective (lb), transition metal thiolates (lc), and, most recently, early transition metal thiolates (Id). Because of potential thione-thiol tautomerism, a review dealing with complexes of heterocylic thione donors (le) is also relevant. This chapter concentrates on thiolate complexes of copper , lithium, and magnesium, but we also mention, for comparison or contrast, many related species of silver and gold and of some complexes that contain selenolate and tellurolate ligands. However, it should be emphasized that we have not attempted a comprehensive literature search outside the primary field of interest. 

In 1992 Ogawa, Sonoda et al. carried out the first catalytic addition of aromatic thiols [143] and selenols [144] to alkynes with Pd(OAc)2. Although the Markovnikov isomer was the major product of the reactions, the yields were not very high [145]. The catalytic reaction was accompanied with non-catalytic addition, leading to the anti-Markovnikov isomers (free radical or nucleophilic reactions) as well as double bond isomerization in the case of thiols (TH F, 67 °C) and selenols (benzene, 80 °C) [143, 144]. The isomerization reaction was especially pronounced with Pd(PhCN)2Cl2 catalyst [146]. It is interesting to note that the intermediate metal complex taking part in the catalytic reaction was denoted as Pd(SPh)2L [146]. 

Salt metathesis [Eq. (7)] is a well-established route in the synthesis of a variety of alkaline-earth metal alkyls [186,208-210], allyls [211-214], benzylates [149,178], cyclopentadienides [17, 108, 215-219], pentadienyls [220], fluorenyls [17, 221], indenyls [222], amides [112, 113, 223], p-diketiminates [112], guanidinates [15, 194], aUcoxides [224], aryloxides [224], silanides [210, 225-228], thiolates [229], phosphanides [230, 231], selenolates [229], and germanides [232, 233]. However, the route has been rarely used for the synthesis of more reactive alkyl and aryl metal complexes, largely due to issues pertaining to ether cleavage chemistry as metathesis typically requires the presence of an ethereal solvent. 

Benzeneselenol as a representative selenol is a colorless liquid of greater acidity than benzenethiol (p a = 5.9 (PhSeH) 6.5 (PhSH)). The bond energy of Se-H is 73 kcal/mol, is smaller than S-H (87 kcal/mol) [82]. These properties may contribute to the efficiency in the oxidative addition of selenols to low-valent transition metals, ligand-exchange reaction between high-valent transition metal complexes and selenols, and protonation process of carbon-metal bonds. Indeed, several transition metal complexes catalyze the highly selective hydrothiolation of alkynes and allenes. 

The starting material is always the chalcogenol and, consequently, is more used for thiols than selenols and tellurols. There are several types of reactions depending if the starting materials are metal hydrides (hydrogen elimination), complexes with M C (alkane elimination), M-N (transamination), or M-O (hydrolysis) bonds. 

Methyl-metal bond cleavage also occurred in the reactions of gold(I), gold(III), and platinum(II) compounds with thiols and selenols (207-209). The reactions of gold(I) and platinum(II) complexes were much faster than those of gold(III), due to the operation of a radical chain mechanism in the former cases. For the reactions with diphenylphosphine, however, the following order of reactivity was found (209) ... 

Various reducing agents have been used for the generation of selenolates from diselenides or selenocyanates. Alkali metals M (M = Li, Na, K)149,150 or alkali hydrides MH (M = Li, Na, K)151,152 can generate the corresponding selenolate anions such as 80 these are more reactive than the borane complexes of type 77 (Scheme 15). Diaryl diselenides are easier reduced than dialkyl diselenides, but the mechanism for the reduction of selenocyanates is complex and can lead to either diselenides or selenolates.153,154... 

The oxidative addition of chalcogen-chalcogen bonds in RE—ER is widely applied in transition metal chemistry and is often a useful route for the preparation of thiolates, selenolates and, to a more limited extent, tellurolates. The oxidative addition of X2 = HO—OH and PhC(0)0—0C(0)Ph is also known and, in the case of Ptu complexes, gives predominantly trans products 47... 

Moreover, the selenol esters can acylate reactive arenes and heteroaromatic compounds when cop-per(I) triflate is employed as the selenophilic metal cation. - The acylation of aromatics by use of the benzene complex of copper(I) triflate (43 Scheme 12) was complete within an hour at room temperature, with benzene as solvent, and the acylation products were obtained in high yields. Intramolecular acylation was examined successfully, as shown in equation (20). 

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