Transition-metal-coordinated alkenes complex hydrides

Selectivity and Stereochemistry. An important property of transition-metal complexes is that they coordinate groups in a specific manner permitting high regio-and stereoselectivity in the catalytic reaction. The migratory insertion step is a highly stereospecific transformation. The four-center transition state 16 illustrated for the Wilkinson catalyst requires a coplanar arrangement of metal, hydride, and alkene n bond ... 

The mechanism of the catalytic cycle is outlined in Scheme 1.37 [11]. It involves the formation of a reactive 16-electron tricarbonyliron species by coordination of allyl alcohol to pentacarbonyliron and sequential loss of two carbon monoxide ligands. Oxidative addition to a Jt-allyl hydride complex with iron in the oxidation state +2, followed by reductive elimination, affords an alkene-tricarbonyliron complex. As a result of the [1, 3]-hydride shift the allyl alcohol has been converted to an enol, which is released and the catalytically active tricarbonyliron species is regenerated. This example demonstrates that oxidation and reduction steps can be merged to a one-pot procedure by transferring them into oxidative addition and reductive elimination using the transition metal as a reversible switch. Recently, this reaction has been integrated into a tandem isomerization-aldolization reaction which was applied to the synthesis of indanones and indenones [81] and for the transformation of vinylic furanoses into cydopentenones [82]. 

The reaction is catalysed by many transition-metal complexes, and a mechanism for the hydrosilylation of an alkene under transition-metal catalysis is depicted in Figure Si5.7. Initial coordination of the alkene to the metal is followed by cis addition of the silicon-hydrogen bond. A hydride migratory insertion and elimination of the product silane complete the cycle. 

Chalk and Harrod provided the first mechanistic explanation for the transition metal catalyzed hydrosilation as early as in 1965. Their mechanism was derived from studies with Speier s catalyst and provided a general scheme, which could be used also for other transition metals. The catalytic cycle consists of an initial oxidative addition (see Oxidative Addition) of the Si-H bond, followed by coordination of the unsaturated molecule, a subsequent migratory insertion (see Insertion) into the metal-hydride bond and eventually a reductive elimination (see Reductive Elimination) (Scheme 3 lower cycle). The scheme provides an explanation for the observed Z-geometry in the hydrosilation of alkynes, which is a consequence of the syn-addition mechanism. The observation of silated alkenes as by-products in the hydrosilation of alkenes along with the lack of well-established stoichiometric examples of reductive elimination of aUcylsilanes from alkyl silyl metal complexes... 

Oligomerization and polymerization catalysis by metal complexes comprises three steps initiation, propagation, and termination. Chain growth proceeds at a coordinatively unsaturated see Coordinative Saturation Unsaturation) center having a metal carbon or metal hydride see Hydride Complexes of the Transition Metals) bond, nsuaUy generated by the interaction of a metal complex with an activating species such as an alkylaluntinum cocatalyst. The first insertion of an alkene monomer into the metal carbon or metal hydride bond (chain initiation) is followed by repeated insertions... 

The silicon hydrides do not spontaneously add to alkenes either. However, the hydrosilation, or hydrosilylation reaction, of olefins is of significant utility in the preparation of alkyl-subtituted silanes with the use of either radical or transition metal catalysis. The preferred metal catalysts for hydrosilation are platinum complexes. Chloro-platinic acid will catalyze hydrosilations with halosilanes, alkylarylhalosilanes, alkoxy-silanes, and siloxanes that in many cases are quantitative under ambient conditions. Yields and conversions are generally poorer for alkyl,- and arylsilanes. Many other coordination complexes have been found to catalyze the hydrosilation reaction, and these can provide certain advantages, particularly in regiochemistry. Some typical hydrosilation reactions are shown in Table... 

The suitability of in situ trapping of intermediate transition-metal hydrides formed by C—H bond activation by a coordinated alkene to form a cr-alkyl has been demonstrated to be feasible with > -allyl hydridoiridium complexes. However, insertion was also shown to occur in an intramolecular sense to yield methyl-substituted iridacyclopentanes ... 

The general mechanism of insertion of an alkene into a metal-hydrogen or a metal-alkyl bond (reaction (91) R = H or alkyl) seems well established. It consists of a coordination of the olefin to the metal, followed by the hydride or the alkyl migration to the olefin, yielding an alkyl complex. The process, which involves a planar four-centered transition state, requires that the metal center is coordinatively unsaturated. 

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