RESUMEN
This Perspective highlights how the methodology of reaction progress kinetic analysis can provide a rapid and comprehensive kinetic profile of complex catalytic reaction networks under synthetically relevant conditions in a fraction of the number of experiments required by classical kinetic analysis. This approach relies on graphical manipulation of the extensive data sets available from accurate in situ monitoring of reaction progress under conditions where two concentration variables are changing simultaneously. A series of examples from Pd-catalyzed coupling reactions of aryl halides demonstrates how a wealth of kinetic information may be extracted from just three experiments in each case. Even before proposing a reaction mechanism, we can determine reaction orders in substrates, propose a resting state for the catalyst, and probe catalyst stability. Carrying out this kinetic analysis at the outset of a mechanistic investigation provides a framework for further work aimed at seeking a molecular-level understanding of the nature of the species within the catalytic cycle. To be considered plausible, any independent mechanistic proposal must be shown to be consistent with this global kinetic analysis.
RESUMEN
Two previous mechanistic studies of the amination of aryl halides catalyzed by palladium complexes of 1,1'-binaphthalene-2,2'-diylbis(diphenylphosphine) (BINAP) are reexamined by the authors of both studies. This current work includes a detailed study of the identity of the BINAP-ligated palladium complexes present in reactions of amines with aryl halides and rate measurements of these catalytic reactions initiated with pure precatalysts and precatalysts generated in situ from [Pd2(dba)3] and BINAP. This work reveals errors in both previous studies, and we describe our current state of understanding of the mechanism of this synthetically important transformation. 31P NMR spectroscopy shows that several palladium(0) species are present in the catalytic system when the catalyst is generated in situ from [Pd2(dba)3] and BINAP, and that at least two of these complexes generate catalytic intermediates. Further, these spectroscopic studies and accompanying kinetic data demonstrate that an apparent positive order in the concentration of amine during reactions of secondary amines is best attributed to catalyst decomposition. Kinetic studies with isolated precatalysts show that the rates of the catalytic reactions are independent of the identity and the concentration of amine, and studies with catalysts generated in situ show that the rates of these reactions are independent of the concentration of amine. Further, reactions catalyzed by [Pd(BINAP)2] with added BINAP are found to be first-order in bromoarene and inverse first-order in ligand, in contrast to previous work indicating zero-order kinetics in both. These data, as well as a correlation between the decay of bromobenzene in the catalytic reaction and the predicted decay of bromobenzene from rate constants of studies on stoichiometric oxidative addition, are consistent with a catalytic process in which oxidative addition of the bromoarene occurs to [Pd(BINAP)] prior to coordination of amine and in which [Pd(BINAP)2], which generates [Pd(BINAP)] by dissociation of BINAP, lies off the cycle. By this mechanism, the amine and base react with [Pd(BINAP)(Ar)(Br)] to form an arylpalladium amido complex, and reductive elimination from this amido complex forms the arylamine.
