Surface organometallic intermediate

Provided electron transfer between the electrode and solute species is not interrupted by the coating, even electroinactive films can offer interesting applications. Thus, a chiral environment in the surface layer may impose stereoselectivity in the follow-up reactions of organic or organometallic intermediates. Furthermore, polymer layers may be used to obtain diffusional permeation selectivity for certain substrates, or as a preconcentration medium for analyzing low concentration species. 

Alkylidene complexes are generally considered to be reactive intermediates but the actual surface organometallic species have never been fully characterized. However, the synthesis of silica-supported tantalum(V) carbene complexes and their characterization have been reported.332... 

In addition, aided by profound knowledge of the nature and reactivity of some surface organometallic species, it was possible to identify the various steps and the nature of intermediates involved in the nucleation processes occurring on the surface in the selective growth of very large clusters such as for instance in the case of [Os5C(CO)i4] and [OsioC(CO)24] [52]. As this subject is treated in detail elsewhere in this book it is not covered here. 

Heterogeneous catalysis is primarily a molecular phenomenon since chemical bonds are created and/or broken (between the molecule and the surface) this implies that surface organometallic fragments are intermediates in any catalytic reaction on a surface. If one can design and synthesize surface organometallic fragments and study their reachvity, especially elementary steps, then one possesses in principle a crihcal tool to better understand the mechanisms of heterogeneous catalysis. 

For example, many catalytic cycles involve the transfer of protons. Common intermediates are carbenium ions and carbanions, and the catalysts include soluble and solid acids and bases and enzymes. The catalytic cycles may be similar, whether the proton donor (or acceptor) is a soluble molecule or ion or a functional group on a surface. Similarly, catalysis proceeding via organometallic intermediates may involve soluble transition metal complexes, metalloenzymes, or metal surfaces. Catalysis by metals is, however, much more complicated than acid-base catalysis, and the analogies between soluble metal complexes and surfaces cannot yet be developed beyond a few selected examples. 

The formation of organometallic intermediates, however, can be initiated by an allylic radical anion on the metal surface (Figure 4.3). Noteworthy is the high value of the electron affinity of allylic bromide and, to a lesser extent, chloride (Moyano et al, 1990). As a matter of fact, in tin-mediated reactions, Wurtz coupling products were sometimes detected (Kim et al, 1993), but, unlike the zinc-mediated allylation, no dimerization of the carbonyl compounds was observed in the absence of the halide (Einhom and Luche, 1987). 

In summary, the initial formation of an allylic radical anion on the metal surface is the most likely event, which would explain the success of indium, as its first ionization potential is particularly low E - 5.79 eV). In tin- and indium-mediated reactions the second step should be the insertion of the metal cation into the carbon-bromine (chlorine) bond to afford organometallic intermediates, which are stable enough to be produced, but also highly reactive toward carbonyl compounds in aqueous media. 

Grignard reagents are a very important class of organometallic compounds. For their preparation an alkyl halide or aryl halide 5 is reacted with magnesium metal. The formation of the organometallic species takes place at the metal surface by transfer of an electron from magnesium to a halide molecule, an alkyl or aryl radical species 6 respectively is formed. Whether the intermediate radical species stays adsorbed at the metal surface (the A-modelf, or desorbs into solution (the D-model), still is in debate ... 

To rationally govern the selectivity of a catalytic process, the elementary reaction steps on real catalyst surfaces must be identified. The use of well-defined organometallic compounds (possible intermediates in surface reactions) can be very useful in the determination of these steps. The use of kinetic modelling techniques combined with statistical analysis of kinetic... 

During the catalytic cycle, surface intermediates include both the starting compounds and the surface metal atoms. This working site is a kind of supramolecule that has organometallic character, and, one hopes, the rules of the organometallic chemistry can be valid for this supramolecule. The synthesis of molecular models of these supramolecules makes it possible to study the elementary steps of the heterogeneous catalysis at a molecular level. Besides similarities there are, of course, also differences between the reactivity of a molecular species in solution and an immobilized species. For example, bimo-lecular pathways on surfaces are usually prohibited. 

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