Subject transition metal carbonyl complexes

In this section reactions of diphosphirene derivatives with transition metal carbonyl complexes, where also the ring skeleton was subject to transformations, are discussed. 

Since they are so clean, these reactions were the subject of in-depth mechanistic studies by electrochemistry [336-338], including by derivative cyclic voltammetry (DCV) [337, 338]. Acetonitrile and other solvento complexes are accessible by photolysis of transition-metal carbonyl complexes in the desired solvent. Such ETC catalyzed reactions are also of interest because they are practical and easily generalized, for instance to the series M(CO)3L3 (M = Cr, Mo, W L = MeCN, pyridine) [339]. 

Further restrictions to the scope of the present article concern certain molecules which can in one or more of their canonical forms be represented as carbenes, e.g. carbon monoxide such stable molecules, which do not normally show carbenoid reactivity, will not be considered. Nor will there be any discussion of so-called transition metal-carbene complexes (see, for example, Fischer and Maasbol, 1964 Mills and Redhouse, 1968 Fischer and Riedel, 1968). Carbenes in these complexes appear to be analogous to carbon monoxide in transition-metal carbonyls. Carbenoid reactivity has been observed only in the case of certain iridium (Mango and Dvoretzky, 1966) and iron complexes (Jolly and Pettit, 1966), but detailed examination of the nature of the actual reactive intermediate, that is to say, whether the complexes react as such or first decompose to give free carbenes, has not yet been reported. A chromium-carbene complex has been suggested as a transient intermediate in the reduction of gfem-dihalides by chromium(II) sulphate because of structural effects on the reaction rate and because of the structure of the reaction products, particularly in the presence of unsaturated compounds (Castro and Kray, 1966). The subject of carbene-metal complexes reappears in Section IIIB. 

The first thionitrosyl complex was discovered by chance during an attempted synthesis of molybdenum nitrido complexes in the presence of a source of sulfur, tetrathiuram sulfide.168 This work of Dilworth and Chatt was reported in 1974 and ultimately led to the syntheses of a range of Mo, Re and Os thionitrosyl complexes starting with the respective nitrido complexes.143,164 Nitrosyl complexes, like carbonyls, had been known for decades, and the more recent syntheses of thio-carbonyl complexes forebode the advent of thionitrosyl complexes. However, convenient synthetic routes based on analogies with syntheses of NO complexes were generally not available because the requisite precursors did not exist or were inconvenient to handle. Sulfiliminato complexes (M=N=SR2) of transition metals are as yet unknown. The chemistry of thionitrosyl complexes was the subject of a recent review.179... 

Despite the focus of this chapter on the most commonly utilized Lewis acids in organic synthesis, a much larger body of data regarding the structure of donor/acceptor complexes of transition metals with carbonyls exists. Although a comprehensive treatment of this subject is beyond the scope of the present discussion, it is nonetheless worthwhile to consider the structural features of some of these complexes briefly, since many demonstrate novel and unusual ways of interacting with the carbonyl group. ... 

There are several recent reviews of the photochemistry of transition metal complexes 3,4,5,29,30,45,466,514,518,580)> the most comprehensive being 4>. However, these papers deal mainly with ionic coordination compounds containing inorganic ligands only one 466> is devoted to photochemical substitution reactions of metal carbonyls and their derivatives, while in another 4> this subject is discussed in a short paragraph. 

In this contribution we shall present several applications of the new method, which we shall refer to as LSD/NL, to the calculation of bond energies of transition metal complexes. We shall focus on trends along a transition period and/or down a transition triad. The following subjects will be discussed a) metal-metal bonds in dimers of the group 6 transition metals b) metal-ligand bonds in early and late transition metal complexes c) the relative strength of metal-hydrogen and metal-methyl bond in transition metal complexes d) the metal-carbonyl bond in hexa- penta-and tetra-carbonyl complexes. 

During the past few decades, a wide variety of molecules with transition metal-carhon mulhple bonds have been studied. The chemistry of doubly bonded species - carbenes - is particularly interesting because it leads to several synthetically important transformations, and for this reason, metal carbenes are the main subject of this chapter. Our discussion begins with a classification of metal-carbene complexes based on electronic structure, which provides a way to understand their reactivity patterns. Next, we summarize the mechanistic highlights of three metal-carbene-mediated reactions carbonyl olefinafion, olefin cyclopropanafion, and olefin metathesis. Throughout the second half of the chapter, we focus mainly on ruthenium-carbene olefin metathesis catalysts, in part because of widespread interest in the applications of these catalysts, and in part because of our expertise in this area. We conclude with some perspectives on the chemistry of metal carbenes and on future developments in catalysis. 

Various unsaturated compounds can be inserted into the metal alkyl, aryl, and alkenyl complexes to give new organometallic complexes having various functional groups. The insertions of carbon monoxide (CO) and isocyanide (CNR) into transition metal-carbon a-bond are particularly important processes, since a carbon unit can be increased in the process and the acyl type complexes formed by the insertion processes can be subjected to further transformations to synthesize useful organic compounds. For example, the CO inserhon constitutes a fundamental step in industrially important processes such as hydroformylation of olefins, acetic acid synthesis from methanol and CO, Fischer-Tropsch process, amidocarbonylation, olefin and CO copolymerizahon processes as well as in a variety of laboratory syntheses of carbonyl containing compounds. 

The metal-bound carbonyl ligand is readily subjected to the attack of not only carbanions but heteroatom nucleophiles such as alcohols and amines to form ligands useful for formation of compounds containing ester and amide functionalities. The ease with which the nucleophilic attack takes place at metal-coordinated alkenes and alkynes provides a basis for oxidation of these molecules in the presence of a transition metal complex catalyst [3,4a], as exemplified by the Wacker type alkene oxidation by the use of a Pd catalyst. Metal catalyzed addition of alcohols or amines to alkenes and alkynes also involve the analogous nucleophilic attack [4b-e]. The attack of carbanions and heteroatom nucleophiles... 

The transformation of an alkylmetal carbonyl complex into a metal-acyl complex is one of the most common types of migratory insertion reactions (Equation 9.3). Examples of CO insertion into metal-alkyl complexes are known for all of the transition elements. This reaction class has been the subject of review articles. These reactions occur by a family of diverse, delicately balanced reaction pathways the dominant mechanism depends on the reaction conditions, especially the solvent. Although these pathways are now imderstood in considerable detail, the precise identities of the intermediates in some of these reaction pathways are unknown. 

The addition of HCN to olefins catalyzed by complexes of transition metals has been studied since about 1950. The first hydrocyanation by a homogeneous catalyst was reported by Arthur with cobalt carbonyl as catalyst. These reactions gave the branched nitrile as the predominant product. Nickel complexes of phosphites are more active catalysts for hydrocyanation, and these catalysts give the anti-Markovnikov product with terminal alkenes. The first nickel-catalyzed hydrocyanations were disclosed by Drinkard and by Brown and Rick. The development of this nickel-catalyzed chemistry into the commercially important addition to butadiene (Equation 16.3) was conducted at DuPont. Taylor and Swift referred to hydrocyanation of butadiene, and Drinkard exploited this chemistry for the synthesis of adiponitrile. The mechanism of ftiis process was pursued in depth by Tolman. As a result of this work, butadiene hydrocyanation was commercialized in 1971. The development of hydrocyanation is one of tfie early success stories in homogeneous catalysis. Significant improvements in catalysts have been made since that time, and many reviews have now been written on this subject. ... 

Interestingly, the first NHC complexes were reported with chromium (0) carbonyl by Ofele in 1968. Relatively few NHC early-transition metal complexes were then reported in the 1990s and this number steadily increased over the past decade. This subject is now mature moreover, the coordination chemistry of NHC has been investigated with alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, lanthanides or group 13-15 metals. Applications of these NHC complexes in catalysis now include, most notably, olefin polymerization or ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters. Some of these complexes display high activity and selectivity and, in some instances, may compete with the best systems in the field. 

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