Solvent, classes coordinating

The sections below review the coordination chemistry of the most important classes of extractants used commercially. Particular attention is paid to the importance of secondary bonding between extractant components. This facilitates the assembly of ligating packages which match the coordination requirements of particular metal cations or their complexes and enhances both the selectivity and strength of extraction. Flydrogen bonding between ligands—e.g., esters of phosphorus(V) acids (see Section 9.17.4.3)—is particularly prevalent in the hydrocarbon solvents commonly used in industrial processes. 

Although the terms labile and inert have been in use for more than 50 years, they are only qualitative descriptions of substitution rates. A more appropriate way to describe the rates has been given by Gray and Langford (1968), which categorizes metal ions according to the rate of exchange of coordinated water with water in the bulk solvent. The four classes of metal ions are shown in Table 20.1. 

The simplest reactions to study, those of coordination complexes with solvent, are used to classify metal ions as labile or inert. Factors affecting metal ion lability include size, charge, electron configuration, and coordination number. Solvents can by classified as to their size, polarity, and the nature of the donor atom. Using the water exchange reaction for the aqua ion [M(H20) ]m+, metal ions are divided by Cotton, Wilkinson, and Gaus7 into four classes ... 

This class of donor is activated by soft Lewis acids, such as copper triflate at room temperature, and despite their hydrolytic instability, they appear inert to conditions of sulfoxide activation, TMSOTf or Tf20 (Scheme 4.53). Activation is achieved with stoichiometric promoter in the presence of the acceptor alcohol, and although the mechanism has not been investigated, presumably it proceeds via coordination followed by collapse to a stabilized oxacarbenium ion. The method is compatible with standard glycosidation solvents such as dichloromethane, acetonitrile and diethyl ether, and ester-directed couplings do not lead to orthoesters, perhaps as a result of the presence of the Lewis acid promoter [303,304]. 

---