Nickel-Mediated Enantioselective Photoredox Allylation of Aldehydes with Visible Light.

Here we report a practical, highly enantioselective photoredox allylation of aldehydes mediated by chiral nickel complexes with commercially available allyl acetate as the allylating agent. The methodology allows the clean stereoselective allylation of aldehydes in good to excellent yields and up to 93 % e.e. using a catalytic amount of NiCl2 (glyme) in the presence of the chiral aminoindanol-derived bis(oxazoline) as the chiral ligand. The photoredox system is constituted by the organic dye 3DPAFIPN and a Hantzsch's ester as the sacrificial reductant. The reaction proceeds under visible-light irradiation (blue LEDs, 456 nm) at 8-12 °C. Compared to other published procedures, no metal reductants (such as Zn or Mn), additives (e.g. CuI) or air-sensitive Ni(COD)2 are necessary for this reaction. Accurate DFT calculations and photophysical experiments have clarified the mechanistic picture of this stereoselective allylation reaction.

Au⋠⋠⋠H-C Hydrogen Bonds as Design Principle in Gold(I) Catalysis.

Secondary ligand-metal interactions are decisive in many catalytic transformations. While arene-gold interactions have repeatedly been reported as critical structural feature in many high-performance gold catalysts, we herein report that these interactions can also be replaced by Au⋅⋅⋅H-C hydrogen bonds without suffering any reduction in catalytic performance. Systematic experimental and computational studies on a series of ylide-substituted phosphines featuring either a PPh3 (Ph YPhos) or PCy3 (Cy YPhos) moiety showed that the arene-gold interaction in the aryl-substituted compounds is efficiently compensated by the formation of Au⋅⋅⋅H-C hydrogen bonds. The strongest interaction is found with the C-H moiety next to the onium center, which due to the polarization results in remarkably strong interactions with the shortest Au⋅⋅⋅H-C hydrogen bonds reported to date. Calorimetric studies on the formation of the gold complexes further confirmed that the Ph YPhos and Cy YPhos ligands form similarly stable complexes. Consequently, both ligands showed the same catalytic performance in the hydroamination, hydrophenoxylation and hydrocarboxylation of alkynes, thus demonstrating that Au⋅⋅⋅H-C hydrogen bonds are equally suited for the generation of highly effective gold catalysts than gold-arene interactions. The generality of this observation was confirmed by a comparative study between a biaryl phosphine ligand and its cyclohexyl-substituted derivative, which again showed identical catalytic performance. These observations clearly support Au⋅⋅⋅H-C hydrogen bonds as fundamental secondary interactions in gold catalysts, thus further increasing the number of design elements that can be used for future catalyst construction.

Extension of Surface Organometallic Chemistry to Metal-Organic Frameworks: Development of a Well-Defined Single Site [(≡Zr-O-)W(═O)(CH2tBu)3] Olefin Metathesis Catalyst.

We report here the first step by step anchoring of a W(≡CtBu)(CH2tBu)3 complex on a highly crystalline and mesoporous MOF, namely Zr-NU-1000, using a Surface Organometallic Chemistry (SOMC) concept and methodology. SOMC allowed us to selectively graft the complex on the Zr6 clusters and characterize the obtained single site material using state of the art experimental methods including extensive solid-state NMR techniques and HAADF-STEM imaging. Further FT-IR spectroscopy revealed the presence of a W═O moiety arising from the in situ reaction of the W≡CtBu functionality with the coordinated water coming from the 8-connected hexanuclear Zr6 clusters. All the steps leading to the final grafted molecular complex have been identified by DFT. The obtained material was tested for gas phase and liquid phase olefin metathesis and exhibited higher catalytic activity than the corresponding catalysts synthesized by different grafting methods. This contribution establishes the importance of applying SOMC to MOF chemistry to get well-defined single site catalyst on MOF inorganic secondary building units, in particular the in situ synthesis of W═O alkyl complexes from their W carbyne analogues.

Accurate Ionization Energies for Mononuclear Copper Complexes Remain a Challenge for Density Functional Theory.

Copper is ubiquitous and its one-electron redox chemistry is central to many catalytic processes. Modeling such chemistry requires electronic structure methods capable of the accurate prediction of ionization energies (IEs) for compounds including copper in different oxidation states and supported by various ligands. Herein, we estimate IEs for 12 mononuclear Cu species previously reported in the literature by using 21 modern density functionals and the DLPNO-CCSD(T) wave function theory model; we consider extrapolated values of the latter to provide reference values of acceptable accuracy. Our results reveal a considerable diversity in functional performance. Although there is nearly always at least one functional that performs well for any given species, there are none that do so for every member of the test set, and certain cases are particularly pathological. Over the entire test set, the SOGGA11-X functional performs best with a mean unsigned error (MUE) of 0.22 eV. PBE0, ωB97X-D, CAM-B3LYP, M11-L, B3LYP, and M11 exhibit MUEs ranging between 0.23 and 0.34 eV. When including relativistic effects with the zero-order regular approximation, ωB97X-D, CAM-B3LYP, and PBE0 are found to provide the best accuracy.

Density Functional Modeling of Ligand Effects on Electronic Structure and C-H Bond Activation Activity of Copper(III) Hydroxide Compounds.

A series of Cu(III)-OH complexes supported by differently substituted bis(carboxamido)pyridine ligands is modeled to identify factors affecting electronic structure and hydrogen atom transfer reactivity. Activation of hydrocarbon substrates is inferred to be influenced by a combination of many factors, including overall charge state, counterion nature (when present), solvation, attractive and repulsive steric interactions, and quantum mechanical tunneling along the reaction coordinate.

The Role of Alkoxide Initiator, Spin State, and Oxidation State in Ring-Opening Polymerization of ε-Caprolactone Catalyzed by Iron Bis(imino)pyridine Complexes.

Density functional theory (DFT) is employed to characterize in detail the mechanism for the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of ε-caprolactone catalyzed by iron alkoxide complexes bearing redox-active bis(imino)pyridine ligands. The combination of iron with the non-innocent bis(imino)pyridine ligand permits comparison of catalytic activity as a function of oxidation state (and overall spin state). The reactivities of aryl oxide versus alkoxide initiators for the ROP of ε-caprolactone are also examined. An experimental test of a computational prediction reveals an Fe(III) bis(imino)pyridine bis-neopentoxide complex to be competent for ROP of ε-caprolactone.

Perturbing the Copper(III)-Hydroxide Unit through Ligand Structural Variation.

Two new ligand sets, (pipMe)LH2 and (NO2)LH2 ((pipMe)L = N,N'-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-1-methylpiperidine-2,6-dicarboxamide, (NO2)L = N,N'-bis(2,6-diisopropyl-4-nitrophenyl)pyridine-2,6-dicarboxamide), are reported which are designed to perturb the overall electronics of the copper(III)-hydroxide core and the resulting effects on the thermodynamics and kinetics of its hydrogen-atom abstraction (HAT) reactions. Bond dissociation energies (BDEs) for the O-H bonds of the corresponding Cu(II)-OH2 complexes were measured that reveal that changes in the redox potential for the Cu(III)/Cu(II) couple are only partially offset by opposite changes in the pKa, leading to modest differences in BDE among the three compounds. The effects of these changes were further probed by evaluating the rates of HAT by the corresponding Cu(III)-hydroxide complexes from substrates with C-H bonds of variable strength. These studies revealed an overarching linear trend in the relationship between the log k (where k is the second-order rate constant) and the ΔH of reaction. Additional subtleties in measured rates arise, however, that are associated with variations in hydrogen-atom abstraction barrier heights and tunneling efficiencies over the temperature range from -80 to -20 °C, as inferred from measured kinetic isotope effects and corresponding electronic-structure-based transition-state theory calculations.

Mechanism of Pd-Catalyzed Decarbonylation of Biomass-Derived Hydrocinnamic Acid to Styrene following Activation as an Anhydride.

All elementary steps in the mechanism of Pd-catalyzed decarbonylation of hydrocinnamic acid through formation of a mixed anhydride species have been characterized through electronic structure calculations. Oxidative addition of the mixed anhydride to a singly or doubly ligated Pd is followed by decarbonylation, alkene formation, and catalyst regeneration. Metal-assisted deprotonation of the alkyl-Pd species by a coordinated carboxylate is predicted to be the rate-determining step; theory suggests that bulkier phosphine ligands (e.g., P(o-Tol)3) reduce the free energy of activation substantially, while variation of the auxiliary anhydride has little influence on efficiency.

Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Generation by Ni-PN3P Pincer Complexes: Role of Phosphorus Substituents in Tuning the Reactivity.

Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (eHER) is crucial in addressing the growing global energy demand. Although nickel-pincer-based molecular complexes, varying in donor atoms, were studied previously for eHER, the impact of variations in the substituents attached to the donor atoms was not investigated. Herein, three air-stable R1PN3PR2-based NiII-pincer complexes [R1=R2=Ph2 (7); R1=R2=tBu2 (9); R1=tBu2, R2=Ph2 (10)], varying solely in P-substituents, were studied in acetonitrile. While the redox potentials for NiII/I and NiI/0 couples underwent anodic shifts by ~100 mV upon progressively substituting tert-butyl by phenyl groups on each P-atom, the corresponding eHER reactivity with organic acids (acetic acid, p-toluenesulfonic acid and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid) of different strengths followed different trends; likely influenced by the pKa of intermediate metal-hydride (M-H) species [pKa(M-H9)>pKa(M-H10)>pKa(M-H7)]. Depending on the acid strength, different oxidation states of the metal were activated to promote eHER. The catalytic rates for 9, 10, and 7 were calculated to be 85 s-1, 77 s-1 and 95 s-1 with Faradaic efficiencies of 88.5±2 %, 66.1±1.4 %, and 91.7±1.5 % respectively, in acetic acid. Electrochemical data supported by theoretical results reinforce a significant electronic influence of the anchoring P-substituents on the activity of these complexes.

Gold complexes with remote-substituted amino N-heterocyclic carbenes.

The 4-RN-1,3-Ar2-imidazolium salt, R = iPr, tBu, Ar = Mes, Dipp, Mes = mesityl, Dipp = 2,6-bis-diisopropyl-phenyl was metalated by AuI at the C2-, C5- and 4-RN positions depending on the reactants and conditions employed; a rare direct rearrangement of a AuI aminide to an abnormal imidazol-5-ylidene AuI complex was also observed and based on a DFT study it may involve TfO- facilitated H+ transfer.

Conversion of Pd(I) off-cycle species into highly efficient cross-coupling catalysts.

We report on the facile conversion of [Pd2(µ-Cl)(µ-η3-R-allyl)(NHC)2] complexes, which are commonly considered undesirable off-cycle species in cross-coupling reactions, into active [PdCl(µ-Cl)(NHC)]2 pre-catalysts. All reactions proceed under mild conditions (40 °C, 1-2 hours in acetone) using inexpensive HCl as both an oxidant and chloride source. DFT calculations were performed to explore the possible mechanism of this transformation, which appears to involve a combination of two different pathways. Moreover this study provides insights into factors favoring and hindering Pd(i) dimer formation undesirable in catalysis.

The anticancer activity of an air-stable Pd(I)-NHC (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene) dimer.

A new dinuclear Pd(i) complex coordinating two bis(NHC) ligands revealed an unsuspected stability despite the unsaturation of the two metal centres. Even more surprisingly, the compound showed high and selective antiproliferative activity against different cancer cell lines and ovarian cancer tumoroids, and the mechanism of action was different from that of cisplatin.

Why metal-oxos react with dihydroanthracene and cyclohexadiene at comparable rates, despite having different C-H bond strengths. A computational study.

1,4-Cyclohexadiene (CHD) and 9,10-dihydroanthracene (DHA) are two substrates used to probe the steric requirements of metal-oxo oxidants in H-atom-transfer (HAT) reactions, based on the assumption that they have comparable C-H bond dissociation enthalpies (BDEs). We use computations to demonstrate that the BDE of DHA is ∼3.5 kcal mol(-1) larger than that of CHD and that their often comparable reactivity is based on a competing interplay of bond strengths and favorable van der Waals interactions.