Iminophosphonamido-Supported Plumbylenes and Plumbyliumylidenes: Synthesis and Properties.

Abstract

A series of low-valent lead(II) species, i.e., plumbylenes and plumbyliumylidenes supported by an N,N'-di-tert-butyliminophosphonamide ligand, have been synthesized. Chloroplumbylene [Ph2P(NtBu)2PbCl] (1) was readily prepared by the reaction of the corresponding lithium iminophosphonamide and PbCl2 in THF. The substitution reaction of 1 with KN(SiMe3)2 in THF afforded the corresponding aminoplumbylene [Ph2P(NtBu)2PbN(SiMe3)2] (2) in the form of colorless crystals. The structures of these plumbylenes in the solid state and in solution were exhaustively characterized using multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. In the crystalline state, 1 adopts a nearly linear polymeric structure in the direction of the c axis via Pb-Cl bonds, with alternating four-membered PbN2P rings. The chloride-abstraction reaction of 1 using Na[B(C6F5)4] in fluorobenzene proceeded efficiently at ambient temperature to furnish plumbyliumylidene [Ph2P(NtBu)2Pb:]+ (3+), which was isolated as the air-sensitive yellow borate salt 3[B(C6F5)4]. Plumbyliumylidene 3[B(C6F5)4] acts as a Lewis acid catalyst for the hydroboration of benzophenone and benzaldehyde at catalyst loadings of as low as 0.1 mol % under ambient conditions. Furthermore, the details of the reaction mechanism are discussed on the basis of the results of DFT calculations.