Transition metals ligand addition-dissociation reactions

Transition metal centered bond activation reactions for obvious reasons require metal complexes ML, with an electron count below 18 ("electronic unsaturation") and with at least one open coordination site. Reactive 16-electron intermediates are often formed in situ by some form of (thermal, photochemical, electrochemical, etc.) ligand dissociation process, allowing a potential substrate to enter the coordination sphere and to become subject to a metal mediated transformation. The term "bond activation" as often here simply refers to an oxidative addition of a C-X bond to the metal atom as displayed for I and 2 in Scheme 1. 

Besides dissociation of ligands, photoexcitation of transition metal complexes can facilitate (1) - oxidative addition to metal atoms of C-C, C-H, H-H, C-Hal, H-Si, C-0 and C-P moieties (2) - reductive elimination reactions, forming C-C, C-H, H-H, C-Hal, Hal-Hal and H-Hal moieties (3) - various rearrangements of atoms and chemical bonds in the coordination sphere of metal atoms, such as migratory insertion to C=C bonds, carbonyl and carbenes, ot- and P-elimination, a- and P-cleavage of C-C bonds, coupling of various moieties and bonds, isomerizations, etc. (see [11, 12] and refs, therein). 

As mentioned in the introduction, early transition metal complexes are also able to catalyze hydroboration reactions. Reported examples include mainly metallocene complexes of lanthanide, titanium and niobium metals [8, 15, 29]. Unlike the Wilkinson catalysts, these early transition metal catalysts have been reported to give exclusively anti-Markonikov products. The unique feature in giving exclusively anti-Markonikov products has been attributed to the different reaction mechanism associated with these catalysts. The hydroboration reactions catalyzed by these early transition metal complexes are believed to proceed with a o-bond metathesis mechanism (Figure 2). In contrast to the associative and dissociative mechanisms discussed for the Wilkinson catalysts in which HBR2 is oxidatively added to the metal center, the reaction mechanism associated with the early transition metal complexes involves a a-bond metathesis step between the coordinated olefin ligand and the incoming borane (Figure 2). The preference for a o-bond metathesis instead of an oxidative addition can be traced to the difficulty of further oxidation at the metal center because early transition metals have fewer d electrons. 

In this chapter, theoretical studies on various transition metal catalyzed boration reactions have been summarized. The hydroboration of olefins catalyzed by the Wilkinson catalyst was studied most. The oxidative addition of borane to the Rh metal center is commonly believed to be the first step followed by the coordination of olefin. The extensive calculations on the experimentally proposed associative and dissociative reaction pathways do not yield a definitive conclusion on which pathway is preferred. Clearly, the reaction mechanism is a complicated one. It is believed that the properties of the substrate and the nature of ligands in the catalyst together with temperature and solvent affect the reaction pathways significantly. Early transition metal catalyzed hydroboration is believed to involve a G-bond metathesis process because of the difficulty in having an oxidative addition reaction due to less available metal d electrons. 

Oxidative-addition reactions have their origin in the inverse dependence of coordination number on d-electron population that characterizes low-spin transition metal complexes, notably those with nearly filled (d -d ) d-subshells, e.g., [Co(III)(CN)6] (d ) [Co(II)(CN)5]3- (d ) [Ni(II)(CN)4]2- (d ) [Ag(I)(CN)2] (d ) etc. One of the consequences of this trend is the oxidations of such complexes, which tend to be accompanied by increases in the preferred coordination numbers of the metal atoms and hence by the incorporation of additional ligands into their coordination shells. The ligands required to complete the coordination shells may in certain cases be derived from the oxidant itself and, indeed, such complexes are especially effective as reductants for molecular oxidants, which typically undergo dissociative reduction to yield anionic ligands,... 

There are two predominant challenges to direct observation of alkanes coordinated to transition metals (1) the short-lived nature of metal/alkane complexes and (2) competition for coordination of the alkane to the metal center. Because of the weak binding energy, alkane coordination is typically short-lived. Thus, fast spectroscopy techniques are required, and these techniques are often coupled with low temperatures in order to slow processes that result in alkane dissociation. In addition to the rapid dissociation of alkanes, most organic substrates will effectively compete (kinetically and thermodynamically) with alkanes for coordination to metals. Thus, the reaction medium is an important consideration since most common solvents are better ligands than alkanes, and attempts to observe alkane coordination have been commonly performed in the gas phase, in hydrocarbon matrices, or in liquid krypton or xenon. Finally, photolysis is generally required to dissociate a ligand at low temperature to create a transient coordination site for the alkane. 

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