Stille coupling, metal-alkyne complexes

The reaction sequence in the vinylation of aromatic halides and vinyl halides, i.e. the Heck reaction, is oxidative addition of the alkyl halide to a zerovalent palladium complex, then insertion of an alkene and completed by /3-hydride elimination and HX elimination. Initially though, C-H activation of a C-H alkene bond had also been taken into consideration. Although the Heck reaction reduces the formation of salt by-products by half compared with cross-coupling reactions, salts are still formed in stoichiometric amounts. Further reduction of salt production by a proper choice of aryl precursors has been reported (Chapter III.2.1) [1]. In these examples aromatic carboxylic anhydrides were used instead of halides and the co-produced acid can be recycled and one molecule of carbon monoxide is sacrificed. Catalytic activation of aromatic C-H bonds and subsequent insertion of alkenes leads to new C-C bond formation without production of halide salt byproducts, as shown in Scheme 1. When the hydroarylation reaction is performed with alkynes one obtains arylalkenes, the products of the Heck reaction, which now are synthesized without the co-production of salts. No reoxidation of the metal is required, because palladium(II) is regenerated. 

Single bond JCH coupling constants for bound alkynes also offer insight into the bonding of terminal alkynes to metals. For M(CO)(HC=CR)-(S2CNEt2)2 complexes ch values well below the free alkyne value of 250 Hz but still above 200 Hz are observed (58). Since /ch is related to the fraction of s character in the C—H bond it addresses hybridization directly and thus crudely quantifies perturbation of the alkyne from sp hybridization on binding to the metal. 

The coupling of terminal alkynes with aryl or vinyl halides under palladium catalysis is known as the Sonogashira reaction. This catalytic process requires the use of a palladium(0) complex, is performed in the presence of base, and generally uses copper iodide as a co-catalyst. One partner, the aryl or vinyl halide, is the same as in the Stille and Suzuki couplings but the other has hydrogen instead of tin or boron as the metal to be exchanged for palladium. 

Some palladium-catalyzed reactions of organotins, such as carbostannylations, are not related to the Stille cross-coupling. The history of the transition-metal-cata-lyzed carbostarmylation [148] began with alkynylstannylation of alkynes catalyzed by a palladium-iminophosphine complex [149]. Thus, alkynylstannanes added to a carbon-carbon triple bond of various acetylenes, conjugated ynoates and propar-gyl amines and ethers in the presence of a catalytic amount of a palladium-iminophosphine complex [150]. The reaction also proceeded with arynes to afford ortho-substituted arylstannanes, which could further be converted into 1,2-substituted arenes via carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions [151]. 

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