作者:Krista M. E. Burton、Dimitrios A. Pantazis、Roman G. Belli、Robert McDonald、Lisa Rosenberg
DOI:10.1021/acs.organomet.6b00757
日期:2016.12.12
An unusually broad series of discrete alkene insertion reactions has provided the opportunity to examine the mechanism(s) of this fundamental carbon-heteroatom bond forming process. Ethylene, electron-rich and electron-poor (activated) alkenes all react with the Ru-P double bond in Ru(eta(5)-indenyl)(PCy2)(PPh3) to form kappa(2)-ruthenaphosphacyclobutanes. Thermal decomposition of these metallacycles in solution, via alkene deinsertion and beta-hydride elimination, is particularly favored for electron-rich alkenes, and hydride-containing decomposition products are implicit intermediates in the observed isomerization of 1-hexene. Kinetic studies, including a Hammett analysis of the insertion reactions of para-substituted styrenes, suggest that two distinct inner-sphere pathways operate for the insertion of electron-rich versus activated alkenes. DFT analyses have identified one pathway involving simple cycloaddition via a four-centered transition state and another that proceeds through an eta(2)-alkene intermediate. Such an intermediate was observed spectroscopically during formation of the ethylene metallacycle, but not for substituted alkenes. We propose that "pre-polarized", activated alkenes participate in direct cycloaddition, while rate determining eta(2)-adduct formation is necessary for the activation of electron-rich alkenes toward migratory insertion into the Ru-P bond.