Quantum-chemical analyses of aromaticity, UV spectra, and NMR chemical shifts in plumbacyclopentadienylidenes stabilized by Lewis bases.

We carried out a series of zeroth-order regular approximation (ZORA)-density functional theory (DFT) and ZORA-time-dependent (TD)-DFT calculations for molecular geometries, NMR chemical shifts, nucleus-independent chemical shifts (NICS), and electronic transition energies of plumbacyclopentadienylidenes stabilized by several Lewis bases, (Ph)2 ((t) BuMe2 Si)2 C4 PbL1 L2 (L1, L2 = tetrahydrofuran, Pyridine, N-heterocyclic carbene), and their model molecules. We mainly discussed the Lewis-base effect on the aromaticity of these complexes. The NICS was used to examine the aromaticity. The NICS values showed that the aromaticity of these complexes increases when the donation from the Lewis bases to Pb becomes large. This trend seems to be reasonable when the 4n-Huckel rule is applied to the fractional π-electron number. The calculated (13)C- and (207)Pb-NMR chemical shifts and the calculated UV transition energies reasonably reproduced the experimental trends. We found a specific relationship between the (13)C-NMR chemical shifts and the transition energies. As we expected, the relativistic effect was essential to reproduce a trend not only in the (207)Pb-NMR chemical shifts and J[Pb-C] but also in the (13)C-NMR chemical shifts of carbons adjacent to the lead atom.

Synthesis, structure, and reactivity of Lewis base stabilized plumbacyclopentadienylidenes.

Plumbacyclopentadienylidenes, in which the lead atoms have divalent states and are coordinated by THF, pyridine and N-heterocyclic carbene, were synthesized and characterized. The THF- and pyridine-stabilized compounds can be regarded as rare examples of hypervalent 10-X-4 species. The equilibrium between the THF adduct and the free plumbacyclopentadienylidene was evidenced by spectroscopic analysis and theoretical calculations. The THF adduct in benzene converted into a plumbylene dimer, where one of the lead centers is coordinated by THF and the other lead atom is coordinated by a divalent lead atom, the dimer gradually decomposing into spiroplumbole. The THF adduct unexpectedly reacted with trifluoroborane and trichlorogallane to afford fluoroborole and chlorogallole, which are the first examples of non-annulated fluoroborole and gallole, respectively.