Fe and Co Complexes of Rigidly Planar Phosphino-Quinoline-Pyridine Ligands for Catalytic Hydrosilylation and Dehydrogenative Silylation

Abstract

Co and Fe dihalide complexes of a new rigidly planar PNN ligand platform are prepared and examined as precatalysts for hydrosilylation of alkenes. Lithiation of Thummel’s 8-bromo-2-(pyrid-2′-yl)quinoline followed by treatment with (i-Pr)2PCl and (C6F5)2PCl afforded the phosphine-quinoline-pyridine ligands, abbreviated RPQpy for R = i-Pr and C6F5, respectively. These ligands form 1:1 adducts with the dichlorides and dibromides of iron and cobalt. Crystallographic characterization of FeBr2(iPrPQpy), FeBr2(ArFPQpy), CoCl2(iPrPQpy), CoBr2(iPrPQpy), and CoCl2(ArFPQpy) confirmed that the M–P–C–C–N–C–C–N portion of these complexes is planar within 0.078 A unlike previous generations of PNN complexes where deviations from planarity were ∼0.35 A. Bond distances as well as magnetism indicate that the Fe complexes are high spin and the cobalt complexes are high spin or participate in spin equilibria. Also investigated were the NNN analogues of the RPQpy ligands, wherein the phosphine group was replaced by the mesity...