Transition metals, alkyl halide complexes

Attempts to synthesize transition metal alkyl compounds have been continuous since 1952 when Herman and Nelson (1) reported the preparation of the compound C H6>Ti(OPri)3 in which the phenyl group was sigma bonded to the metal. This led to the synthesis by Piper and Wilkinson (2) of (jr-Cpd)2 Ti (CH3)2 in 1956 and a large number of compounds of titanium with a wide variety of ligands such as ir-Cpd, CO, pyridine, halogen, etc., all of which were inactive for polymerization. An important development was the synthesis of methyl titanium halides by Beerman and Bestian (3) and Ti(CH3)4 by Berthold and Groh (4). These compounds show weak activity for ethylene polymerization but are unstable at temperatures above — 70°C. At these temperatures polymerizations are difficult and irreproduceable and consequently the polymerization behavior of these compounds has been studied very little. In 1963 Wilke (5) described a new class of transition metal alkyl compounds—x-allyl complexes,... 

Transition metal-carbonyl-diimine complexes [Ru(E)(E ) (CO)2(a-diimine)] (E, E = halide, alkyl, benzyl, metal fragment a-diimine = 1, 4-diazabutadiene or 2,2 -bipyridine) are widely studied for their unconventional photochemical, photophysical, and electrochemical properties. These molecules have a great potential as luminophores, photosensitizers, and photoinitiators of radical reactions and represent a challenge to the understanding of excited-state dynamics. The near-UV/visible electronic spectroscopy of [Rn(X)(Me)(CO)2(/Pr-DAB)] (X = Cl or I iPr-DAB = A,A -di-isopropyl-l,4-diaza-l,3-butadiene) has been investigated throngh CASSCF/C ASPT2 and TD-DFT calculations on the model complexes [Ru(X)(Me)(CO)2(Me-DAB)] (X = Cl or I) (Table 2). 

This mechanism is quite general for this substitution reaction in transition metal hydride-carbonyl complexes [52]. It is also known for intramolecular oxidative addition of a C-H bond [53], heterobimetallic elimination of methane [54], insertion of olefins [55], silylenes [56], and CO [57] into M-H bonds, extmsion of CO from metal-formyl complexes [11] and coenzyme B12- dependent rearrangements [58]. Likewise, the reduction of alkyl halides by metal hydrides often proceeds according to the ATC mechanism with both H-atom and halogen-atom transfer in the propagation steps [4, 53]. 

The synthesis of transition metal alkyls usually involves the interaction of a very reactive metal alkyl, with a transition metal halide or alkoxide. This approach necessarily involves having two metals in the system which considerably complicates the problem of isolation of single pure compounds. In addition, low-valence transition metal compounds are electron-deficient molecules, and, for this reason, they will attempt to expand their coordination number by sharing ligands (halogen, alkyl, etc.) between two metal centers with the formation of bimetallic complexes. 

To determine the number of electrons around the transition metal in a complex the valence electrons from the metal ion are added to those contributed by all the ligands. The numbers of electrons donated by various classes of ligands are summarized in the table. Anions such as halides, cyanide, alkoxide, hydride, and alkyl donate two electrons, as do neutral ligands with a lone pair such as phosphines, amines, ethers, sulfides, carbon monoxide, nitriles, and... 

Subsequent studies on the reactivities of neutral and cationic alkyl- and aryl- palladium complexes revealed that the creation of a vacant site adjacent to the alkyl or aryl ligand causes marked enhancement in reactivity toward j8-hydrogen migration. The implications of these results on the fundamental processes of the transition metal alkyls and aryls with the mechanisms of Pd-catalyzed organic synthesis, such as arylation of olefins and carbonylation of aryl halides, have been discussed. 

Vinyl complexes are typically prepared by the same methods used to prepare aryl complexes. Vinyl mercury compounds, like aryl mercury compoimds, are easily prepared (by the mercuration of acetylenes), and are therefore useful for the preparation of vinyl transition metal complexes by transmetallation. The use of vinyl lithium reagents has permitted the s rnthesis of homoleptic vinyl complexes by transmetallation (Equation 3.35). Reactive low-valent transition metal complexes also form vinyl complexes by the oxidative addition of vinyl halides with retention of stereochemistry about the double bond (Equation 3.36). Vinyl complexes have also been formed by the insertion of alkynes into transition metal hydride bonds (Equation 3.37), by sequential electrophilic and nucleophilic addition to alkynyl ligands (Equation 3.38), and by the addition of nucleophiles to alkyne complexes (Equation 3.39). The insertion of alkynes into transition metal alkyl complexes is presented in Chapter 9 and, when rearrangements are slower than insertion, occurs by s)m addition. In contrast, nucleophilic attack on coordinated alkynes, presented in Chapter 11, generates products from anti addition. 

Transition metal p-diketiminate complexes are typically prepared by one of three routes. In one, these complexes are prepared by the reaction of a metal halide with an alkali metal P-diketiminate generated from the reaction of the p-diketiminate with an alkali metal base. An example of this synthesis is shown for the scandium system in Equation 4.51 In a second method, these complexes are prepared by the reaction of a transition metal complex containing a basic ligand, such as an alkyl or amido group, with the neutral p-diketimine. Two examples of this route for zirconium systems are shown in Equations 4.52 and 4.53, 3... 

Transition-metal-alkyl bonds can be formed by a variety of reactions that include metathetical replacement of a halide ion, oxidative addition, and insertion of an alkene into a metal-hydride bond. " A similar set of reactions is available for the synthesis of transition-metal-aryl bonds, although the analogous insertion of a benzyne intermediate into a metal-hydride bond is not particularly viable as a synthetic route. For alkyl complexes that have longer chains than methyl, thermal decomposition to give the metal-hydride complex by a j5-hydrogen transfer reaction is frequently observed at ambient temperature. 

The cyanoalkyl py3RhCl2(CHMeCN) is formed by addition of pyridine and acrylonitrile to RhCh in ethanol [48c]. Possibly a Rh-hydride intermediate is involved in this reaction. The unusual methyl complexes (Ph3P)2MMeClI(MeI), where M = Rh or Ir, are of interest since they are thought to contain Mel acting as a ligand to the metal via the iodine [48d]. If it does then these are the first examples where an alkyl halide complexes with a transition metal. 

Transition metal-ar l complexes, M—COR, may be formed eitiier from an ar l halide and metal anions (compare alkyls, see section A), or, by carbonylation of some metal carbonyl-alkyl, M-carbonylation reactions are frequently reversible. Indeed, with some alkyl cobalt tetracarbonyl complexes infrared and kinetic studies... 

As indicated by the title, these processes are largely due to the work of Ziegler and coworkers. The type of polymerisation involved is sometimes referred to as co-ordination polymerisation since the mechanism involves a catalyst-monomer co-ordination complex or some other directing force that controls the way in which the monomer approaches the growing chain. The co-ordination catalysts are generally formed by the interaction of the alkyls of Groups I-III metals with halides and other derivatives of transition metals in Groups IV-VIII of the Periodic Table. In a typical process the catalyst is prepared from titanium tetrachloride and aluminium triethyl or some related material. 

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