Secondary Phosphine Oxides as Multitalented Preligands En Route to the Chemoselective Palladium-Catalyzed Oxidation of Alcohols

Transition Metal Catalysis Controlled by Hydrogen Bonding in the Second Coordination Sphere

Transition metal catalysis is of utmost importance for the development of sustainable processes in academia and industry. The activity and selectivity of metal complexes are typically the result of the interplay between ligand and metal properties. As the ligand can be chemically altered, a large research focus has been on ligand development. More recently, it has been recognized that further control over activity and selectivity can be achieved by using the "second coordination sphere", which can be seen as the region beyond the direct coordination sphere of the metal center. Hydrogen bonds appear to be very useful interactions in this context as they typically have sufficient strength and directionality to exert control of the second coordination sphere, yet hydrogen bonds are typically very dynamic, allowing fast turnover. In this review we have highlighted several key features of hydrogen bonding interactions and have summarized the use of hydrogen bonding to program the second coordination sphere. Such control can be achieved by bridging two ligands that are coordinated to a metal center to effectively lead to supramolecular bidentate ligands. In addition, hydrogen bonding can be used to preorganize a substrate that is coordinated to the metal center. Both strategies lead to catalysts with superior properties in a variety of metal catalyzed transformations, including (asymmetric) hydrogenation, hydroformylation, C-H activation, oxidation, radical-type transformations, and photochemical reactions.

Bulky Di(1-adamantyl)phosphinous Acid-Ligated Pd(II) Precatalysts for Suzuki Reactions of Unreactive Aryl Chlorides

Di(1-adamantyl)phosphine oxide (SPO-Ad: Ad2P(V)(=O)H), a stable tautomer of di(1-adamantyl)phosphinous acid (PA-Ad: Ad2P(III)-OH), was employed to synthesize two new PA-Ad-coordinated complexes, POPd-Ad and POPd2-Ad. POPd-Ad was easily transformed from POPd2-Ad in acetonitrile, and the [M - H]- ion of the deprotonated POPd-Ad was observed in the electrospray ionization-mass spectrum of POPd2-Ad. Both complexes are effective precatalysts for the Suzuki reaction of aryl chlorides. The reduction of Pd(II) in POPd-Ad and POPd2-Ad by arylboronic acid was examined, and the ideal Pd-to-PA ratio in the Suzuki reaction was found to be 1:1. The effect of temperature on the catalytic yields was studied to examine the possible ligation state of the active species and the dimer-to-monomer process of POPd2-Ad. Mononuclear and mono-ligated Pd species was assumed to be catalytically active. The electronic and steric effects of PA-Ad were slightly better than those reported for PA-tBu ( t Bu2P(III)-OH). Density functional theory calculations were performed to evaluate the formation of mono-ligated and mononuclear Pd species from POPd-Ad and POPd2-Ad. Furthermore, the reaction time and catalyst loading could be reduced for the reported POPd1-tBu precatalyst using the optimized reaction conditions for POPd-Ad. The complexes synthesized in this extensive study will complement the existing SPO-coordinated POPd series of precatalysts.

Conformational Preference of 2'-Fluoro-Substituted Acetophenone Derivatives Revealed by Through-Space 1H-19F and 13C-19F Spin-Spin Couplings

The conformational properties of 2′-fluoro-substituted acetophenone derivatives were elucidated based on H^α–F and C^α–F through-space spin–spin couplings (TS-couplings), which occur between two atoms constrained at a distance smaller than the sum of their van der Waals radii. This study revealed that 2′-fluoro-substituted acetophenone derivatives in solutions form exclusively s-trans conformers by analyzing their NMR spectra focused on the TS-couplings. The magnitudes of the coupling constants ⁵J (H^α, F) and ⁴J (C^α, F) correlate linearly with the value of the dielectric constant of the solvents. Furthermore, s-trans conformations of the two derivatives were confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. These conformational preferences were consistent with the DFT calculations. The s-cis conformer, in which fluorine and oxygen atoms lie in a syn-periplanar mode, may be subject to strong repulsion between the two polar atoms and become unstable. The s-trans preference of the 2′-fluoro-substituted acetophenone derivatives may be utilized in drug design.

Platinum-(phosphinito-phosphinous acid) complexes as bi-talented catalysts for oxidative fragmentation of piperidinols: an entry to primary amines

Platinum-(phosphinito-phosphinous acid) complex catalyzes the oxidative fragmentation of hindered piperidinols according to a hydrogen transfer induced methodology. This catalyst acts successively as both a hydrogen carrier and soft Lewis acid in a one pot - two steps process. This method can be applied to the synthesis of a wide variety of primary amines in a pure form by a simple acid-base extraction without further purification.

Synthesis of chiral supramolecular bisphosphinite palladacycles through hydrogen transfer-promoted self-assembly process

P-Chiral secondary phosphine oxides react with Pd2(dba)3 in an acidic medium to provide chiral supramolecular bisphosphinite palladacycles through a H-transfer-based self-assembly process prior to SPO-promoted oxidative addition of an acid to a Pd(0) centre. The one-pot methodology allows variations of the X-type ligand as desired. Eight complexes have been characterised by X-ray diffraction.

Palladium-catalyzed chemoselective anaerobic oxidation of N-heterocycle-containing alcohols

A palladium-catalyzed chemoselective anaerobic oxidation for N-heterocycle-containing alcohols has been achieved with chloroarenes as oxidants.