Sulfur-based soft

However, formation of this bond through the conjugate addition of a soft sulfur nucleophile to a,P-unsaturated aldehydes is efficiently catalysed using iminium ion catalysis [116], Using diarylprolinol silyl ether 55 the addition of a series of sulfur based nucleophiles to a variety of a,P-unsaturated aldehydes was shown to be effective (73-87% yield 89-97% ee). The products were isolated as their p-hydroxy sulfide derivatives 73 after in situ reduction of the products (Scheme 33). 

It is appropriate at this point to summarize the tendency of various nucleophiles to add to the carbonyl group. In general, the strong bases (organometallics, hydrides, negative ions) are most effective among the neutral nucleophiles, the soft ones, for example the sulfur bases, tend to be more effective in addition than the hard ones, for example the oxygen bases. 

The asymmetric conjugate addition of sulfur-based nucleophiles to Michael acceptors has been achieved using enantiomerically pure metal-based catalysts and organocatalysts. Sulfur nucleophiles are soft, and preferentially react by conjugate addition with a, p-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Only catalytic amounts of the lithium thiolate (11.65) are required, since addition to the enone (11.66) generates the enolate (11.67). The enolate is then able to deprotonate thiol (11.68), regenerating thiolate (11.65) with formation of the product (11.69). 

Interestingly, SbCls coordinates to the nitrogen and not to the sulfur atom of the polyfunctional bases S2N2 (CSD reference code GIRXEK) and S4N4 [23]. According to the HSAB rule that hard acids prefer hard bases, and since nitrogen bases are classified as hard or borderline whereas sulfur bases are soft, this site preference enables SbCls to be... 

Chemical Properties. Although the chemical properties of the trivalent lanthanides are quite similar, some differences occur as a consequence of the lanthanide contraction (see Table 3). The chemical properties of yttrium are very similar too, on account of its external electronic stmcture and ionic radius. Yttrium and the lanthanides are typical hard acids, and bind preferably with hard bases such as oxygen-based ligands. Nevertheless they also bind with soft bases, typicaUy sulfur and nitrogen-based ligands in the absence of hard base ligands. 

Metals that are soft Lewis acids, for example cadmium, mercury, and lead, are extremely hazardous to living organisms. Tin, in contrast, is not. One reason is that tin oxide is highly insoluble, so tin seldom is found at measurable levels in aqueous solution. Perhaps more important, the toxic metals generally act by binding to sulfur in essential enz Tnes. Tin is a harder Lewis acid than the other heavy metals, so it has a lower affinity for sulfur, a relatively soft Lewis base. 

Cation-selective ionophores are the most successful in polymeric ISEs and selectivi-ties exceeding ten orders of magnitude became quite common. The cation-ionophore binding occurs dominantly due to Lewis interactions and could be understood in terms of hard and soft acid and bases theory (HSAB). While hard base oxygen atoms originate from ester, ether or carbonyl functionalities, and interact with hard acid alkaline cations, the softer sulfur or nitrogen atoms better bind with transition metal ions. Cation... 

In other words, OH is a much stronger base than SH . The orbital holding the unshared pair of electrons on the oxygen atom is smaller than the one holding the electron pair on the sulfur atom. Therefore, H+ interacts more strongly with OH- than it does with SH . The HSIP does not say that hard acids will not bond to soft bases. Rather, it says that bonding between hard acids and hard bases is more effective than between hard acids and soft bases. A similar statement can also be made for bonding as a result of the interaction between soft acids and soft bases. 

Although the subject of stability of complexes will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 19 it is appropriate to note here some of the general characteristics of the metal-ligand bond. One of the most relevant principles in this consideration is the hard-soft interaction principle. Metal-ligand bonds are acid-base interactions in the Lewis sense, so the principles discussed in Sections 9.6 and 9.8 apply to these interactions. Soft electron donors in which the donor atom is sulfur or phosphorus form more stable complexes with soft metal ions such as Pt2+ or Ag+, or with metal atoms. Hard electron donors such as H20, NH3( or F generally form stable complexes with hard metal ions like Cr3+ or Co3+. 

From elemental sulfur to selenium and tellurium, intermolecular interactions (,secondary bonds, soft-soft interactions) play an increasing role. According to N. W. Alcock,1 the term secondary bond describes interatomic distances longer than covalent single bonds but shorter than van der Waals interatomic distances.1 In many cases secondary bonds can also be described as coordinative Lewis base - Lewis acid or charge transfer (donor-acceptor) types of interactions. 

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