RESUMO
Reaction of the ruthenium carbene complex Cp*(IPr)RuCl (1) (IPr = 1,3-bis(Dipp)imidazol-2-ylidene; Dipp = 2,6-diisopropylphenyl) with sodium phosphaethynolate (NaOCP) led to intramolecular dearomatization of one of the Dipp substituents on the Ru-bound carbene to afford a Ru-bound phosphanorcaradiene, 2. Computations by DFT reveal a transition state characterized by a concerted process whereby CO migrates to the Ru center as the P atom adds to the π system of the aryl group. The phosphanorcaradiene possesses ambiphilic properties and reacts with both nucleophilic and electrophilic substrates, resulting in rearomatization of the ligand aryl group with net P atom transfer to give several unusual metal-bound, P-containing main-group moieties. These new complexes include a metallo-1-phospha-3-azaallene (RuâPâCâNR), a metalloiminophosphanide (RuâPâNâR), and a metallophosphaformazan (RuâP(âNâNâCPh2)2). Reaction of 2 with the carbene 2,3,4,5-tetramethylimidazol-2-ylidene (IMe4) produced the corresponding phosphaalkene DippPâIMe4.
RESUMO
The ring-opening oxidative amination of methylenecyclopropanes (MCPs) with diazenes catalyzed by py3TiCl2(NR) complexes is reported. This reaction selectively generates branched α-methylene imines as opposed to linear α,ß-unsaturated imines, which are difficult to access via other methods. Products can be isolated as the imine or hydrolyzed to the corresponding ketone in good yields. Mechanistic investigation via density functional theory suggests that the regioselectivity of these products results from a Curtin-Hammett kinetic scenario, where reversible ß-carbon elimination of a spirocyclic [2 + 2] azatitanacyclobutene intermediate is followed by selectivity-determining ß-hydrogen elimination of the resulting metallacycle. Further functionalizations of these branched α-methylene imine products are explored, demonstrating their utility as building blocks.
RESUMO
The rational design of catalysts remains a challenging endeavor within the broader chemical community owing to the myriad variables that can affect key bond-forming events. Designing selective catalysts for any reaction requires an efficient strategy for discovering predictive structure-activity relationships. Herein, we describe the use of iterative supervised principal component analysis (ISPCA) in de novo catalyst design. The regioselective synthesis of 2,5-dimethyl-1,3,4-triphenyl-1H-pyrrole (C) via a Ti-catalyzed formal [2 + 2 +1] cycloaddition of phenylpropyne and azobenzene was targeted as a proof of principle. The initial reaction conditions led to an unselective mixture of all possible pyrrole regioisomers. ISPCA was conducted on a training set of catalysts, and their performance was regressed against the scores from the top three principal components. Component loadings from this PCA space and k-means clustering were used to inform the design of new test catalysts. The selectivity of a prospective test set was predicted in silico using the ISPCA model, and optimal candidates were synthesized and tested experimentally. This data-driven predictive-modeling workflow was iterated, and after only three generations the catalytic selectivity was improved from 0.5 (statistical mixture of products) to over 11 (>90% C) by incorporating 2,6-dimethyl-4-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pyridine as a ligand. The origin of catalyst selectivity was probed by examining ISPCA variable loadings in combination with DFT modeling, revealing that ligand lability plays an important role in selectivity. A parallel catalyst search using multivariate linear regression (MLR), a popular approach in catalysis informatics, was also conducted in order to compare these strategies in a hypothetical catalyst scouting campaign. ISPCA appears to be more robust and predictive than MLR when sparse training sets are used that are representative of the data available during the early search for an optimal catalyst. The successful development of a highly selective catalyst without resorting to long, stochastic screening processes demonstrates the inherent power of ISPCA in de novo catalyst design and should motivate the general use of ISPCA in reaction development.
