Zinc-carbon bonds complexes

A ferrocenyl-based aldimine chelated dimethylzinc with its imino and oxygen atom to produce the tetrahedral dimethylzinc complex 44. Both zinc-carbon bonds are equidistant (1.974(2) A) and the zinc-oxygen donor bond (2.381(2) A) is substantially longer than the zinc-nitrogen counterpart (2.213(2) A) (Scheme 37).91... 

The zinc-methyl bond (1.914(4) A) is the shortest zinc-carbon bond reported to date, while the zinc-nitrogen bonds (2.040(2) A) are slightly longer than those in neutral, three-coordinate zinc diketiminato complexes (Figure 48). 

An attempted synthesis, Scheme 65, of a heterozincate from dimethylzinc and bis (2-pyridyl)methyl lithium gave instead the dimeric [bis (2-pyridyl)methyl methylzinc] complex 84, shown in Figure 43.143 The intermolecular zinc-carbon bond to the bridging carbon atoms is remarkably short (2.269(3) A), while the zinc-methyl bond is slightly elongated (1.974(3) A). 

Mass spectrometry has found various applications in the chemistry of zinc-carbon bonds. The availability of a variety of ionization techniques has made possible the identification of different types of organozinc compounds—volatile, neutral, ionic, dimeric, polymetallic, solvent-containing etc. In the majority of the reported cases, molecular species have been observed. The experimental results demonstrated that Zn—C bonds are rather weak and easily cleaved upon or after ionization. It is obvious, however, that expanding mass spectrometry-based methods of analysis of zinc complexes will greatly benefit this field of chemistry, as well as facilitate applications of organozinc compounds to material sciences. 

Fluorine migration from the CF3 group to the metal occurs with Cr", Fe ", Co ", Pt" and Zn" but not with Ru ", Rh" , Ni" and Pd". The reaction pathway for the zinc complexes is shown in Scheme 3. The molecular ion (48) loses a CFj radical from one monothio-)8-diketone moiety to give the ion (49), which then loses carbon monoxide to yield the fragment (50). Sulfur is ejected from (50) with the concomitant formation of a zinc-carbon bond in the species (51), which can subsequently lose the alkyne RC=CH to give the mono-ligand ion [ZnL] (52). The second ligand moiety loses Cp2 with the formation of a zinc-fluorine bond in the ion (53). 

It should be noted that an unusual, relatively stable, complex [Co(L837)] + with a zinc-carbon bond, for which X-ray structural evidence has been reported [37], is formed on treating [Co(L836)] + with zinc dust. It is supposed [38] that reduction of the cobalt(ni) to cobalt(II) in the dichloro cage species [Co(L836)] +, followed by oxidative addition of Zn to the C-Cl bonds and finally addition of two CE... 

Metal-induced reductive dimerization of carbonyl compounds is a useful synthetic method for the formation of vicinally functionalized carbon-carbon bonds. For stoichiometric reductive dimerizations, low-valent metals such as aluminum amalgam, titanium, vanadium, zinc, and samarium have been employed. Alternatively, ternary systems consisting of catalytic amounts of a metal salt or metal complex, a chlorosilane, and a stoichiometric co-reductant provide a catalytic method for the formation of pinacols based on reversible redox couples.2 The homocoupling of aldehydes is effected by vanadium or titanium catalysts in the presence of Me3SiCl and Zn or A1 to give the 1,2-diol derivatives high selectivity for the /-isomer is observed in the case of secondary aliphatic or aromatic aldehydes. 

CH3 -Zn with superstoichiometric (defect) zinc atoms (Zn -impurity centres of conductivity). The larger is the electric positivity of the metal in these complexes, the larger is the ionicity of the carbon-metal bond, carbon being at the negative end of the dipole. Thus, in the case of C - K bond, ionicity amounts to 51%, whereas for C - Mg and C - Zn bonds ionicity amounts to 35% and 18%, respectively [55]. Consequently, metalloorganic compounds are characterized by only partially covalent metal-carbon bonds (except for mercury compounds). 

Aldolases such as fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (FBP-aldolase), a crucial enzyme in glycolysis, catalyze the formation of carbon-carbon bonds, a critical process for the synthesis of complex biological molecules. FBP-aldolase catalyzes the reversible condensation of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and glyceralde-hyde-3-phosphate (G3P) to form fructose-1,6-bisphosphate. There are two classes of aldolases the first, such as the mammalian FBP-aldolase, uses an active-site lysine to form a Schiff base, whereas the second class features an active-site zinc ion to perform the same reaction. Acetoacetate decarboxylase, an example of the second class, catalyzes the decarboxylation of /3-keto acids. A lysine residue is required for good activity of the enzyme the -amine of lysine activates the substrate carbonyl group by forming a Schiff base. 

Organozinc reagents have been coupled with halides in the synthesis of dienes and other conjugated systems to form new carbon-carbon bonds such reactions have been reviewed477-479. In particular, the reaction of alkynyl zinc reagents with vinyl halides has been used in natural product synthesis, usually catalyzed by palladium complex catalysts. 

Zinc and cadmium alkyls have not been successful as stereospecific catalysts in the absence of co-catalysts, presumably because they do not complex strongly enough with the monomer and the metal-carbon bonds are too covalent. Cadmium alkyls were first reported by Furukawa and coworkers (260) to induce vinyl polymerization, but it was shown later (267, 262) that oxygen was a co-catalyst and the reactions were free radical in nature. Similar free radical results were obtained with zinc alkyls (261—263) and vinyl monomers. However, with more basic and more easily polarized monomers, such as olefin oxides and aldehydes, the zinc catalysts operate by a coordinated anionic mechanism (250). 

Trialkyl boron was first claimed as a new anionic initiator for the polymerization of vinyl compounds (264), although it was rather improbable in view of the low ionic character of the boron-carbon bond. The error was quickly corrected when it was shown that free radicals were involved (265, 266) and that oxygen, peroxides, silver salts and copper salts were co-catalysts (262, 267). Aluminum alkyls can also initiate radical polymerizations in the presence of oxygen (267,262) but, as in the case of zinc, cadmium or boron alkyls, the products were not stereoregular. Thus, complexing between catalyst and monomer probably does not occur. 

Figure 20.4). Ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate binds to Mg2+ through its keto group and an adjacent hydroxyl group. This complex is readily deprotonated to form an enediolate intermediate. This reactive species, analogous to the zinc-hydroxide species in carbonic anhydrase (Section 9.2.2). couples with CO2, forming the new carbon-carbon bond. The... 

The reagent was initially regarded as iodomethylzinc iodide, ICHjZnI, a relatively strongly bonded complex of carbene and zinc iodide (a) in which the carbon atom is... 

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