Styrenes, rhodium catalysts

The differences in the steric effect between catecholborane and pinacolborane, and the valence effect between a cationic or neutral rhodium complex reverse the re-gioselechvity for fluoroalkenes (Scheme 1-4) [26]. The reaction affords one of two possible isomers with excellent regioselectivity by selecting borane and the catalyst appropriately, whereas the uncatalyzed reaction of 9-BBN or SiaiBH failed to yield the hydroboration products because of the low nucleophilicity of fluoroalkenes. The regiochemical preference is consistent with the selectivity that is observed in the hydroboration of styrene. Thus, the internal products are selectively obtained when using a cationic rhodium and small catecholborane while bulky pinacolborane yields terminal products in the presence of a neutral rhodium catalyst. 

They observed the complete deactivation of the rhodium catalyst whether immobilized or not in the presence of free amines. When no amine was present, styrene formation was not observed. After 17 h of a reaction in which both catalysts were immobilized, the yield of the product, ethylbenzene, was 52%, again demonstrating the principle of enabling two otherwise incompatible catalysts to work concomitantly in order to achieve process intensification. 

Cyclopropanation of C=C bonds by carbenoids derived from diazoesters usually occurs stereospeciflcally with respect to the configuration of the olefin. This has been confirmed for cyclopropanation with copper 2S,S7,60 85), palladium 86), and rhodium catalysts S9,87>. However, cyclopropanation of c -D2-styrene with ethyl diazoacetate in the presence of a (l,2-dioximato)cobalt(II) complex occurs with considerable geometrical isomerization88). Furthermore, CuCl-catalyzed cyclopropanation of cis-2-butene with co-diazoacetophenone gives a mixture of the cis- and trans-1,2-dimethylcyclopropanes 89). 

Platinum complexes with chiral phosphorus ligands have been extensively used in asymmetric hydroformylation. In most cases, styrene has been used as the substrate to evaluate the efficiency of the catalyst systems. In addition, styrere was of interest as a model intermediate in the synthesis of arylpropionic acids, a family of anti-inflammatory drugs.308,309 Until 1993 the best enantio-selectivities in asymmetric hydroformylation were provided by platinum complexes, although the activities and regioselectivities were, in many cases, far from the obtained for rhodium catalysts. A report on asymmetric carbonylation was published in 1993.310 Two reviews dedicated to asymmetric hydroformylation, which appeared in 1995, include the most important studies and results on platinum-catalogued asymmetric hydroformylation.80,81 A report appeared in 1999 about hydrocarbonylation of carbon-carbon double bonds catalyzed by Ptn complexes, including a proposal for a mechanism for this process.311... 

TABLE 3.1. Asymmetric hydroformylation of styrene using polystyrene supported rhodium catalysts based... 

The inclusion of styrene in Table IV is noteworthy. Styrene hydrofor-mylates easily with rhodium catalyst to give a mixture of 2- and 3-phen-ylpropionaldehyde in good yield (/). This is in contrast to the results reported for the cobalt system, in which hydrogenation to ethylbenzene was the principal reaction. 

In comparison with the platinum catalysts, rhodium catalysts are much more reactive to effect addition of bis(catecholato)diboron even to non-strained internal alkenes under mild reaction conditions (Equation (5)).53-55 This higher reactivity prompted trials on the asymmetric diboration of alkenes. Diastereoselective addition of optically active diboron derived from (li ,2i )-diphenylethanediol for />-methoxystyrene gives 60% de (Equation (6)).50 Furthermore, enantioselective diboration of alkenes with bis(catecolato)diboron has been achieved by using Rh(nbd)(acac)/(A)-QUINAP catalyst (Equation (7)).55,56 The reaction of internal (A)-alkenes with / //-butylethylene derivatives gives high enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee), whereas lower ee s are obtained in the reaction of internal (Z)-alkenes, styrene, and a-methylstyrene. 

The catalyst can also have a significant influence on the stereoselectivity of cyclopropanation reactions [1023], For instance, cyclopropanation of styrene with ethyl diazoacetate and copper or rhodium catalysts normally proceeds with low diastereoselectivity. With ruthenium porphyrines as catalysts, however, up to 92% de can be achieved [1041,1042]. 

The other three studies in the literature also deal with the asymmetric hydroformylation of styrene and all three applied water soluble rhodium -phosphine catalysts (Scheme 4.9). BINAS (44), sulfonated BIPHLOPHOS (43), tetrasulfonated (R,R)-cyclobutane-DIOP (37, m=0) and tetrasulfonated (S,S)-BDPP (36, m=0) were applied as ligands of the rhodium catalyst prepared in situ from [Rh(acac)(CO)2] or [ Rh( Li-OMe)(COD) 2] and the phosphines. The results are summarized in Table 4.4. 

Initial studies showed that the encapsulated palladium catalyst based on the assembly outperformed its non-encapsulated analogue by far in the Heck coupling of iodobenzene with styrene [7]. This was attributed to the fact that the active species consist of a monophosphine-palladium complex. The product distribution was not changed by encapsulation of the catalyst. A similar rate enhancement was observed in the rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of 1-octene (Scheme 8.1). At room temperature, the catalyst was 10 times more active. For this reaction a completely different product distribution was observed. The encapsulated rhodium catalyst formed preferentially the branched aldehyde (L/B ratio 0.6), whereas usually the linear aldehyde is formed as the main product (L/B > 2 in control experiments). These effects are partly attributed to geometry around the metal complex monophosphine coordinated rhodium complexes are the active species, which was also confirmed by high-pressure IR and NMR techniques. 

Steric effects in the alkene structure also affect linearity. As a result, quaternary carbon atoms are rarely formed in hydroformylation45 In contrast, electronic effects in hydroformylation of arylalkenes often result in the predominant formation of the branched aldehyde.6 40 43 46- 8 Styrene has a marked tendency to form 2-phenylpropanal when hydroformylated in the presence of rhodium catalysts. Rhodium complexes modified by biphosphine49 or mixed amino phosphine oxide ligands50 were shown to give the branched aldehyde with high reactivity and selectivity (iso normal ratios <61.5). 

Optical yields up to 17% and 25%, respectively, have been reached in the styrene hydroformylation in the presence of cobalt or rhodium catalysts using N-alkylsalicylaldimine or phosphines as asymmetric ligands. Furthermore the hydroformylation of aliphatic and internal olefins have been achieved using rhodium catalysts in the presence of optically active phosphines. With the same catalysts, cis-butene surprisingly undergoes asymmetric hydroformulation with optical yields up to 27%. On the basis of the results obtained for cis-butene and the asymmetric induction phenomena in dichlor(olefin)(amine)platinum( 11) com-... 

Rhodium(II) acetate appears to be the most generally effective catalyst, and most of this discussion will center around the use of this catalyst with occasional reference to other catalysts when significant synthetic advantages can be gained. Cyclopropanation of a wide range of alkenes is possible with alkyl diazoacetate, as is indicated with the examples shown in Table l.l6e>37 The main limitations are that the alkene must be electron rich and not too sterically crowded. Poor results were obtained with trans-alkenes. Comparison studies have been carried out with copper and palladium catalysts and commonly the yields were lower than with rhodium catalysts. Cyclopropanation of styrenes and strained alkenes, however, proceeded extremely well with palladium(ll) acetate, while copper catalysts are still often used for cyclopropanation of vinyl ethers.38-40... 

Hydrogenation of a mixture of styrenes ArCH=CH2 (or reactive alkenes, such as norbornene or ethylene) and symmetric or mixed carboxylic anhydrides [(RC0)20 or (RCO)O(COR )] in the presence of cationic rhodium catalysts ligated by triphenylar-sine (Ph3As), generates hydroacylation products ArCH(Me)COR as single regioiso-mers in high yields.108... 

Table 3. Asymmetric hadroformylation of styrene by rhodium catalysts...

The reaction of pinacolborane with styrenes 127 in the presence of bis(chloro-l,5-cyclooctadienylrhodium) at room temperature provides styrenyl pinacol boronate 128 <1999TL2585, 2002BCJ825>. While hydroboration of alkenes is the predominant reaction with phosphine-containing rhodium catalysts such as Wilkinson s catalyst and Rh(PPh3)2COCl, dehydrogenative borylation dominates over hydroboration in the presence of phosphine-free... 

Asymmetric hydroboration of CtHsCH=CH2.2 The reaction of cate-cholborane with styrene provides, after oxidation, 2-phenylethanol. Hydroboration catalyzed by a cationic rhodium catalyst, [Rh(COD)2]+BF4 and dppb, provides 1-phenylethanol (99 1) in 86% yield. A catalytic asymmetric hydroboration is possible with BINAP. Use of (-)-BINAP as ligand and a temperature of -78° provides 1-phenylethanol in 96% ee (equation I). 

The catalytic performance of the fluoropolymer ligands 1 and 2 was first tested in the fluorous biphase hydroformylation of 1-alkenes, styrene and n-butyl acrylate. The reaction was conducted in a batch reactor in a 40/20/40 vol% hexane/toluene/perfluoromethylcyclohexane solvent mixture (10 mL). The catalyst was formed in situ by adding [Rh(CO)2(acac)] (5 rmol, P/Rh = 6) to the polymer-containing solvent mixture followed by introduction of syngas (30 bar, CO/H2 = 1/1). Table 2 summarises the results obtained. The salient features of the results are Firstly, the activity of the fluorous soluble polymer catalysts are significantly higher than that reported for solid polymer- and aqueous soluble polymer-supported rhodium catalysts.18-22 For example, the average turnover frequency (TOF) for the fluorous biphase hydroformylation of 1-decene is 136 mole aldehyde h-1 per mol of rhodium catalyst with an aldehyde selectivity of 99%. In comparison, a rhodium catalyst supported on the... 

Multiatomic [6] as well as cationic [7] rhodium catalysts also display a high preference for linear hydroformylation products. However, a catalyst system which generally yields branched hydroformylation products has not yet been found. Vinylarenes, such as styrene (16), form preferentially the (.vo-aldehyde 20 and not the n-aldehydes. The possibility to form a relatively stable Rh- -allyl complex 18 is most likely the decisive factor for this result [8]. Subsequent oxidation of 20 leads to 2-arylpropionic acids 21, of which some derivatives like 22-24 are of great importance as non-steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSID) (Scheme 3) [9]. For their synthesis by the hydroformylation of styrenes, not only a regioselective but also an enantioselective reaction process is... 

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