Mechanism Of Oxidative Addition Research Articles

Computational Study of Bridge Splitting, Aryl Halide Oxidative Addition to PtII , and Reductive Elimination from PtIV : Route to Pincer-PtII Reagents with Chemical and Biological Applications.

Density functional theory computation indicates that bridge splitting of [PtII R2 (μ-SEt2 )]2 proceeds by partial dissociation to form R2 Pta (μ-SEt2 )Ptb R2 (SEt2 ), followed by coordination of N-donor bromoarenes (L-Br) at Pta leading to release of Ptb R2 (SEt2 ), which reacts with a second molecule of L-Br, providing two molecules of PtR2 (SEt2 )(L-Br-N). For R=4-tolyl (Tol), L-Br=2,6-(pzCH2 )2 C6 H3 Br (pz=pyrazol-1-yl) and 2,6-(Me2 NCH2 )2 C6 H3 Br, subsequent oxidative addition assisted by intramolecular N-donor coordination via PtII Tol2 (L-N,Br) and reductive elimination from PtIV intermediates gives mer-PtII (L-N,C,N)Br and Tol2 . The strong σ-donor influence of Tol groups results in subtle differences in oxidative addition mechanisms when compared with related aryl halide oxidative addition to palladium(II) centres. For R=Me and L-Br=2,6-(pzCH2 )2 C6 H3 Br, a stable PtIV product, fac-PtIV Me2 {2,6-(pzCH2 )2 C6 H3 -N,C,N)Br is predicted, as reported experimentally, acting as a model for undetected and unstable PtIV Tol2 {L-N,C,N}Br undergoing facile Tol2 reductive elimination. The mechanisms reported herein enable the synthesis of PtII pincer reagents with applications in materials and bio-organometallic chemistry.

Mechanism of 8-Aminoquinoline-Directed Ni-Catalyzed C(sp3)–H Functionalization: Paramagnetic Ni(II) Species and the Deleterious Effect of Carbonate as a Base

Studies into the mechanism of 8-aminoquinoline-directed nickel-catalyzed C(sp3)–H arylation with iodoarenes are described, in an attempt to determine the catalyst resting state and optimize catalytic performance. Paramagnetic complexes are identified that are undergo the key C–H activation step. Hammett analysis using electronically different aryl iodides suggests a concerted oxidative addition mechanism for the C–H functionalization step; DFT calculations were also performed to support this finding. When Na2CO3 is used as the base the rate determination step for C–H functionalization appears to be 8-aminoquinoline deprotonation and binding to Ni. The carbonate anion was also observed to provide a deleterious NMR inactive low-energy off-cycle resting state in catalysis. Replacement of Na2CO3 with NaOtBu not only improved catalysis at milder conditions but also eliminated the need for carboxylic acid and phosphine additives.

Mechanism and Selectivity Control in Ni- and Pd-Catalyzed Cross-Couplings Involving Carbon-Oxygen Bond Activation.

Transition-metal-catalyzed C-O bond activation provides a useful strategy for utilizing alcohol- and phenol-derived electrophiles in cross-coupling reactions, which has become a research field of active and growing interest in organic chemistry. The synergy between computation and experiment elucidated the mechanistic model and controlling factors of selectivities in these transformations, leading to advances in innovative C-O bond activation and functionalization methods.Toward the rational design of C-O bond activation, our collaborations with the Jarvo group bridged the mechanistic models of C(sp2)-O and C(sp3)-O bond activations. We found that the nickel catalyst cleaves the benzylic and allylic C(sp3)-O bonds via two general mechanisms: the stereoinvertive SN2 back-side attack model and the stereoretentive chelation-assisted model. These two models control the stereochemistry in a wide array of stereospecific Ni-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions with benzylic or allylic alcohol derivatives. Because of the catalyst distortion, the ligands can differentiate the competing stereospecific C(sp3)-O bond activations. The PCy3 ligand interacts with nickel mainly through σ-donation, and the Ni(PCy3) catalyst can undergo facile bending of the substrate-nickel-ligand angle, which favors the stereoretentive benzylic C-O bond activation. The N-heterocyclic carbene SIMes ligand has additional d(metal)-p(ligand) back-donation with nickel, which leads to an extra energy penalty for the same angle bending. This results in the preference of stereoinvertive benzylic C-O bond activation under Ni/SIMes catalysis. In addition to ligand control, a Lewis acid can increase the selectivity for stereoinvertive C(sp3)-O activation by stabilizing the SN2 back-side attack transition state. The oxygen leaving group complexes with the MgI2 Lewis acid in the stereoinvertive activation, leading to the exclusive stereoinvertive Kumada coupling of benzylic ethers. We also identified that the competing C(sp3)-O bond activation models have noticeable differences in charge separation. This leads to the solvent polarity control of the stereospecificity in C(sp3)-O activations. Low-polarity solvents favor the neutral stereoretentive C-O bond activation, while high-polarity solvents favor the zwitterionic stereoinvertive cleavage.In sharp contrast to the nickel catalysts, the C(sp2)-O bond activation under palladium catalysis mainly proceeds via the classic three-membered ring oxidative addition mechanism instead of the chelation-assisted mechanism. This is due to the lower oxophilicity of palladium, which disfavors the oxygen coordination in the chelation-assisted-type activation. The three-membered ring activation model selectively cleaves the weak C-O bond, resulting in the exclusive chemoselectivity of acyl C-O bond activation in Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions with aryl carboxylic acid derivatives. This explains the overall acylation in the Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura coupling with aryl esters. In collaboration with the Szostak group, we revealed that the three-membered ring model applies in the Pd-catalyzed C-O bond activation of carboxylic acid anhydride, which stimulated the development of a series of Pd-catalyzed decarbonylative functionalizations of aryl carboxylic acids.

The mechanism of oxidative addition of Pd(0) to Si-H bonds: electronic effects, reaction mechanism, and hydrosilylation.

The oxidative addition of Pd to Si–H bonds is a crucial step in a variety of catalytic applications, and many aspects of this reaction are poorly understood. One important yet underexplored aspect is the electronic effect of silane substituents on reactivity. Herein we describe a systematic investigation of the formation of silyl palladium hydride complexes as a function of silane identity, focusing on electronic influence of the silanes. Using [(μ-dcpe)Pd]2 (dcpe = dicyclohexyl(phosphino)ethane) and tertiary silanes, data show that equilibrium strongly favours products formed from electron-deficient silanes, and is fully dynamic with respect to both temperature and product distribution. A notable kinetic isotope effect (KIE) of 1.21 is observed with H/DSiPhMe2 at 233 K, and the reaction is shown to be 0.5th order in [(μ-dcpe)Pd]2 and 1st order in silane. Formed complexes exhibit temperature-dependent intramolecular H/Si ligand exchange on the NMR timescale, allowing determination of the energetic barrier to reversible oxidative addition. Taken together, these results give unique insight into the individual steps of oxidative addition and suggest the initial formation of a σ-complex intermediate to be rate-limiting. The insight gained from these mechanistic studies was applied to hydrosilylation of alkynes, which shows parallel trends in the effect of the silanes' substituents. Importantly, this work highlights the relevance of in-depth mechanistic studies of fundamental steps to catalysis.

Radical abstraction vs. oxidative addition mechanisms for the activation of the S-H, O-H, and C-H bonds using early transition metal oxides.

Quantum chemical calculations are performed to study the S-H, O-H, and C-H bond activation of H2S, H2O, and CH4 by bare and ligated ZrO+ and NbO+ units. These representative oxides bear low energy oxo and higher energy oxyl units. S-H and C-H bonds are readily activated by metal oxyl states (radical mechanism), but the O-H bond is harder to activate with either the oxyl or oxo states. Our results suggest that known practices for the C-H bond activation can be applied to S-H, but not to O-H bonds. The identified trends are rationalized in terms of the HS-H, HO-H, and H3C-H dissociation energies to the homolytic or heterolytic fragments. We also found that these dissociation energies drop to about half after coordination of H2S or H2O to the metal oxide unit. In addition, chlorine ligands are shown to stabilize the higher energy oxyl states of the transition metal oxygen unit enhancing the reactivity of the formed complexes.

Ni(0)-promoted activation of Csp2 -H and Csp2 -O bonds.

A dinickel(0)–N2 complex, stabilized with a rigid acridane-based PNP pincer ligand, was studied for its ability to activate C(sp2)–H and C(sp2)–O bonds. Stabilized by a Ni–μ–N2–Na+ interaction, it activates C–H bonds of unfunctionalized arenes, affording nickel–aryl and nickel–hydride products. Concomitantly, two sodium cations get reduced to Na(0), which was identified and quantified by several methods. Our experimental results, including product analysis and kinetic measurements, strongly suggest that this C(sp2)–H activation does not follow the typical oxidative addition mechanism occurring at a low-valent single metal centre. Instead, via a bimolecular pathway, two powerfully reducing nickel ions cooperatively activate an arene C–H bond and concomitantly reduce two Lewis acidic alkali metals under ambient conditions. As a novel synthetic protocol, nickel(ii)–aryl species were directly synthesized from nickel(ii) precursors in benzene or toluene with excess Na under ambient conditions. Furthermore, when the dinickel(0)–N2 complex is accessed via reduction of the nickel(ii)–phenyl species, the resulting phenyl anion deprotonates a C–H bond of glyme or 15-crown-5 leading to C–O bond cleavage, which produces vinyl ether. The dinickel(0)–N2 species then cleaves the C(sp2)–O bond of vinyl ether to produce a nickel(ii)–vinyl complex. These results may provide a new strategy for the activation of C–H and C–O bonds mediated by a low valent nickel ion supported by a structurally rigidified ligand scaffold.

DFT study on synergetic Ir/Cu-metallaphotoredox catalyzed trifluoromethylation of aryl bromides

MacMillan et al. recently developed an elegant strategy for trifluoromethylation of aryl halides by merging iridium photoredox catalysis with copper catalysis [Science 360 (2018) 1010–1014]. The present work presents a complementary theoretical study to better understand the dual photoredox-copper catalysis. Calculated results confirm that the most possible photoredox catalytic cycle proceeds via a reductive quenching mechanism (IrIII/*IrIII/IrII/IrIII) with supersilanol as quencher and the CF3 reagent as oxidant. The formation of aryl radical involves three essential steps: deprotonation of the oxidized supersilanol by Na2CO3 to form the O-centered radical species, SiMe3 group migration to give the Si-centered silyl radical, bromine atom abstraction from aryl bromide. The CF3 radical can be obtained via the fragmentation process of the reduced CF3 reagent. The additions of both aryl radical and CF3 radical on the CuI center generates CuIII complex, from which the desired trifluoromethylation product is obtained via the C(sp2)−CF3 reductive elimination. All these processes were found to involve low barriers, and the highest one is only 12.7 kcal/mol, providing support of the viable trifluoromethylation strategy using copper catalysis via the radical trapping mechanism rather than the conventional oxidative addition mechanism.

Carbon-halogen bond activation by a structurally constrained phosphorus(III) platform

The σ-bond activation by main group element has received enormous attention from theoretical and experimental chemists. Here, the reaction of C–X (X = Cl, Br, I) bonds in benzyl and allyl halides with a pincer-type phosphorus(III) species was reported. A series of structurally robust phosphorus(V) compounds were formed via the formal oxidative addition reactions of C–X bonds to the phosphorus(III) center. Density functional theory calculations show that the nucleophilic addition process is more favorable than the direct oxidative addition mechanism. Isomerization of bent structures of phosphorus(III) compound to poorly nucleophilic compounds to undergo further C–X bond activation can be rationalized by frontier molecule orbital analysis. This study not only provides a deep understanding of the reactivity of phosphorus(III) species but also demonstrates a potential of main group elements for the small-molecule activation.

HARC as an open-shell strategy to bypass oxidative addition in Ullmann–Goldberg couplings

The copper-catalyzed arylation of unsaturated nitrogen heterocycles, known as the Ullmann-Goldberg coupling, is a valuable transformation for medicinal chemists, providing a modular disconnection for the rapid diversification of heteroaromatic cores. The utility of the coupling, however, has established limitations arising from a high-barrier copper oxidative addition step, which often necessitates the use of electron-rich ligands, elevated temperatures, and/or activated aryl electrophiles. Herein, we present an alternative aryl halide activation strategy, in which the critical oxidative addition (OA) mechanism has been replaced by a halogen abstraction-radical capture (HARC) sequence that allows the generation of the same Cu(III)-aryl intermediate albeit via a photoredox pathway. This alternative mechanistic paradigm decouples the bond-breaking and bond-forming steps of the catalytic cycle to enable the use of many previously inert aryl bromides. Overall, this mechanism allows access to both traditional C-N adducts at room temperature as well as a large range of previously inaccessible Ullmann-Goldberg coupling products including sterically demanding ortho-substituted heteroarenes.

Ni-Catalyzed Enantioconvergent Coupling of Epoxides with Alkenylboronic Acids: Construction of Oxindoles Bearing Quaternary Carbons

We have developed a nickel- nickel/bisphosphine-catalyzed stereoconvergent cross-coupling reaction of epoxides with alkenylboronic acids. Racemic spiroepoxyoxindoles were converted to chiral homoal...

Oriented External Electric Fields and Ionic Additives Elicit Catalysis and Mechanistic Crossover in Oxidative Addition Reactions.

Judiciously applied oriented external electric fields (OEEFs) exert catalytic effects on the kinetics and improve the thermodynamics of chemical reactions. Herein, we examine the ability of OEEFs to assist catalysts and show that the rate of oxidative addition between palladium catalysts and alkyl/aryl electrophiles can be controlled by an OEEF applied along the direction of electron reorganization (the "reaction axis"). The concerted mechanism of oxidative addition proceeds through a transition state with moderate charge transfer character. We demonstrate that OEEFs along the reaction axis can control this charge transfer and impart electrostatic catalysis. When the applied field exceeds a certain critical value (∼0.15 V/Å), we observed a mechanistic crossover from the concerted to a dissociative CSNAr type of reactivity for aryl electrophiles. To our surprise, alkyl electrophiles follow a hitherto unexplored SN2 pathway for the reaction with large transition state stabilization at relatively low OEEFs. A valence-bond state correlation diagram (VBSCD) is employed to comprehend the results. Finally, although the catalytic effect of salt additives in oxidative addition is known, its mechanism is still under debate. Our findings further show evidence that salt additives exert electric-field effects on the rate of cross-coupling reactions, and their cocatalytic effects can be judiciously reproduced by applied external electric fields. As such, we propose that the use of additives (anionic or cationic) is an experimentally viable strategy to implement external electric-field effects in routinely used oxidative addition catalysis.

Molecular mechanism comparison of decarbonylation with deoxygenation and hydrogenation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural catalyzed by palladium acetate.

The selective removal of oxygen from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is challenging for the effective utilization of biomass. The catalytic mechanisms of palladium acetate toward the conversion of HMF to furfuryl alcohol (FFA), 5-methylfurfural (5-MF) and 2,5-dihydroxymethyl furan (DHMF) have been theoretically investigated. The decarbonylation of HMF to FFA includes (i) migratory extrusion, (ii) metal-acetate-co-assisted deprotonation, (iii) decarbonylation, (iv) metal-assisted deprotonation, and (v) migratory extrusion and catalyst regeneration. Both hydrogenation and deoxidation of HMF with HCOOH as the H-source involve (i) migratory extrusion, (ii) oxidative addition, (iii) reductive elimination, (iv) metal-assisted deprotonation, and (v) migratory extrusion and catalyst regeneration. The C-H bond cleavage is the crucial reaction step, in which the metal-acetate-co-assisted deprotonation is kinetically more preferable than the oxidative addition. Both FFA and DHMF are kinetically superior to 5-MF. In terms of selectivity, increasing the temperature is beneficial to decarbonylation and decreasing the temperature is advantageous to hydrogenation. The present finding provides molecular-level insight into the functions of both the metal-center and coordinated-ligand in the Pd(OAc)2 catalyst, which may drive the novel design of catalytic systems toward both decarbonylation and hydrogenation reactions.

Why Two Metals Are Better Than One for Heterodinuclear Cobalt–Zirconium-Catalyzed Kumada Coupling

Heterodinuclear transition metal complexes with a direct metal–metal interaction offer the potential of unique reactivity compared with mononuclear catalysts. Heterodinuclear Co–Zr complexes with phosphinoamide ligands bridging Co and Zr metal centers are effective precatalysts for Kumada C–C bond coupling reactions between alkyl halides and alkyl Grignards. In contrast, the analogous mononuclear Co tris(phosphinoamine) complex without Zr provides very inefficient catalysis. Here we describe density functional theory calculations that reveal the mechanistic and reactivity impact of the Co–Zr metal–metal interaction and phosphinoamide ligands on alkyl halide–alkyl Grignard Kumada coupling catalysis. The Co–Zr interaction enables two-electron reduction of the precatalyst to form an active catalyst, which then promotes a low-energy electron-transfer alkyl halide oxidative addition mechanism. The Co–Zr interaction and the phosphinoamide ligands bridging the metal centers provide a dialkyl intermediate with a ...

Mechanistic Variants in Methane Activation Mediated by Gold(I) Supported on Silicon Oxide Clusters.

Cationic gold has been frequently identified as a suitable reactive species for activating methane in condensed-phase studies. However, it is far from clear how the coordination site manipulates the activity of such species. Herein, by anchoring AuI on silicon oxide cluster supports of variable sizes, the site-specific methane activation by AuI -Ox has been clarified by mass spectrometry in conjunction with quantum chemistry calculations. An unexpected mechanistic switch in C-H activation was identified for the cluster anions Au(SiO2 )n O- (n=1-3) that selectively activate one of the four C-H bonds of methane with different reaction efficiencies: a low efficiency was observed for the two-fold-coordinated gold ion (AuI, 2f ), which was anchored on an AuSiO3 - or AuSi2 O5 - cluster, through an oxidative addition mechanism (a homolytic process), and high efficiency was observed for the one-fold-coordinated gold ion (AuI, 1f ), which was supported on an AuSi3 O7 - cluster, through Lewis acid/base pairs mechanism (AuI, 1f ⋅⋅⋅O2- , a heterolytic process). Fine regulation of the 5d orbital level of the Au atom by the oxygen ligands accounted for the mechanistic difference between AuI, 2f and AuI, 1f species. The mechanistic understanding of the reactivity of AuI -Ox at a strictly molecular level can be used to clarify the dissimilar activity of gold anchored on different oxide supports.

Synthesis of Quaternary α-Fluorinated α-Amino Acid Derivatives via Coordinating Cu(II) Catalytic α-C(sp3)-H Direct Fluorination.

A coordinating, copper-catalyzed direct α-C(sp3)-H fluorination method has been developed to prepare vital quaternary α-fluorinated α-amino acid derivatives. A Cu(II) catalytic SET oxidative addition mechanism is proposed, involving a key fluoride-coupled Cu(II) charge transfer complex. The protocol can tolerate a rich variety of α-amino acids, for which the auxiliary group is removed in high yield and substituted for the direct preparation of dipeptide derivatives with detachable, single absolute configurations of the target compounds.

Ni-Catalyzed Carbon-Carbon Bond-Forming Reductive Amination.

This report describes a three-component, Ni-catalyzed reductive coupling that enables the convergent synthesis of tertiary benzhydryl amines, which are challenging to access by traditional reductive amination methodologies. The reaction makes use of iminium ions generated in situ from the condensation of secondary N-trimethylsilyl amines with benzaldehydes, and these species undergo reaction with several distinct classes of organic electrophiles. The synthetic value of this process is demonstrated by a single-step synthesis of antimigraine drug flunarizine (Sibelium) and high yielding derivatization of paroxetine (Paxil) and metoprolol (Lopressor). Mechanistic investigations support a sequential oxidative addition mechanism rather than a pathway proceeding via α-amino radical formation. Accordingly, application of catalytic conditions to an intramolecular reductive coupling is demonstrated for the synthesis of endo- and exocyclic benzhydryl amines.

Intramolecular C–H Activation Reactions of Ru(NHC) Complexes Combined with H2 Transfer to Alkenes: A Theoretical Elucidation of Mechanisms and Effects of Ligands on Reactivities

Recent experimental studies have identified Ru(II) NHC complexes that are highly reactive in the tandem intramolecular C(sp3)–H activation of an N-alkyl substituent to form a metallacycle and transfer hydrogenation of alkenes. These complexes are promising candidates for tandem catalytic processes that depend on a reversible uptake of hydrogen (“borrowing hydrogen catalysis”). We have elucidated the reaction mechanisms by density functional theory calculations and investigated ligand effects on reactivity. The reaction of ruthenium dihydride complex [Ru(H)2(NHC)(CO)(PPh3)2] (1) with ethylene occurs via dissociative ligand exchange to replace one of the phosphine ligands with ethylene, followed by hydride migration and reductive elimination to form a Ru(0) intermediate. Subsequent C–H activation occurs via an oxidative addition mechanism. Bulkier NHC and phosphine ligands facilitate the dissociation of phosphine, which leads to a lower overall barrier. In addition, the N-iPr substituted NHC ligand promotes...

Halogen atom transfer mechanism of iron-catalyzed direct arylation to form biaryl using Density Functional Theory calculations

Iron-catalyzed direct arylations of unactivated arenes with aryl iodides provide an important method to form C-C bonds. The present study explored the mechanisms of iron(II)-catalyzed direct arylation of Iodobenzene with Benzene using Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations at the B3LYP-D3 level, which included the halogen atom transfer (to produce aryl radical) mechanism, the single electron transfer mechanism, the σ–bond metathesis mechanism and the oxidative addition mechanism. The calculated results showed that the halogen atom transfer mechanism was favored. The rate-limiting step for the halogen atom transfer mechanism was the first step to produce the phenyl radical with the energy barrier of ΔE = 29.8 kcal/mol in the gas phase and the Gibbs free energy in solvent benzene ΔGsol = 37.7 kcal/mol. The substituent effects of phenyl iodide were also studied.

Synthesis and reactivity toward olefin exchange and oxidative addition of some platinum(0) olefin complexes with thioquinolines as spectator ligands

We have synthesized and fully characterized by NMR, IR and elemental analysis sixteen Pt(0) derivatives stabilized by four different thioquinoline spectator ligands and four different deactivated olefins. Moreover we have studied the reactivity and proposed a mechanism for olefin-olefin, olefin-alkyne exchange and oxidative addition of alkyl halides to this new class of Pt(0) derivatives based on detailed kinetic measurements. The kinetic study was carried out by NMR and UV–Vis techniques and in one case we have determined the activation parameters. Finally, we were able to resolve the solid state structure of a couple of diastereoisomers among the four possible isomers generated by the combination of two stereocenters.

Aluminum(i) β-diketiminato complexes activate C(sp2)-F and C(sp3)-F bonds by different oxidative addition mechanisms: a DFT study.

DFT computations reveal different reaction mechanisms for the oxidative addition of C(sp2)-F and C(sp3)-F bonds to the Al(i) complexes: a concerted mechanism for C(sp2)-F and a stepwise mechanism for C(sp3)-F involving fluoride transfer and the formation and recombination of an ion pair.