Synergistic Effects of Multimetallic Main Group Complexes in Organic Synthesis

Abstract

This section focuses on synergistic effects of main group metal-containing complexes. The synergistic effect: the phenomenon of the reactivity of a multimetallic system being greater than the sum of its homometallic parts, or different from any of them, is essential and has been widely applied in organic synthesis. Great efforts have been made in the application of main group metal-containing complexes in various organic reactions including stoichiometric reactions like nucleophilic addition and deprotonative metalation reactions, as well as catalytic reactions such as enantioselective addition, hydroamination, hydroboration, hydrogenation and CC bond formation reactions. In view of the unique reactivities and versatile capabilities of the synergistic effects, we herein discuss the developments, general properties and possible mechanism of some typical multimetallic complexes. Several representative synergistic effects including Lewis acidity of the cation, enhanced reactivity of the anion ligand, enhanced stability and solubility, cooperative activation, spatial and template effects are outlined. Besides, we pay special attention to the coordination of a reactive organometallic species within a polar main group metal complex, which could provide a protection effect to the reactive species and thus endow the ate complexes with desirable thermodynamic stability and kinetic reactivity.