Dibenzoazepine hydrazine is a building block for N-alkene hybrid ligands: exploratory syntheses of complexes of Cu, Fe, and Li

The new hydrazine 5H-dibenzo[b,f]azepin-5-amine (2) reacts with P- and Si-electrophiles via deprotonation to afford P(III)-, P(V)-, and TMS-hydrazides 3-8 and with carbonyl electrophiles via acid-free condensation to the N-substituted hydrazones 9-12 that are potential N-alkene ligands. While β-ketohydrazone 9 and α-dihydrazone 10 react with [Mes(Cu)]4, [Cu(NCCCH3)4]2PF6, and FeCl2(THF)1.5 to afford complexes devoid of alkene interaction, [Cu(OTf)]2·C6H6 reacts with the α-keto hydrazone 11 or with N,N dimethyl-hydrazone 12 to form the neutral dimeric Cu(I) complex 18 with bridging Cu(I)-alkene interactions or the tetrahedral cationic complex 19 in which 12 binds as a bidentate hydrazone-alkene ligand, respectively. The surprising stability of the alkene coordination in complexes 18 and 19 prevents substitutions with, e.g., PPh3.

Straightforward and Efficient Deuteration of Terminal Alkynes with Copper Catalysis

The mild and effective preparation of deuterated organic molecules is an active area of research due to their important applications. Herein, we report an air-stable and easy to access copper(I) complex as catalyst for the deuteration of mono-substituted alkynes. Reactions were carried out in technical solvents and in the presence of air, to obtain excellent deuterium incorporation in a range of functionalised alkynes.

Photoactive Copper Complexes: Properties and Applications

Photocatalyzed and photosensitized chemical processes have seen growing interest recently and have become among the most active areas of chemical research, notably due to their applications in fields such as medicine, chemical synthesis, material science or environmental chemistry. Among all homogeneous catalytic systems reported to date, photoactive copper(I) complexes have been shown to be especially attractive, not only as alternative to noble metal complexes, and have been extensively studied and utilized recently. They are at the core of this review article which is divided into two main sections. The first one focuses on an exhaustive and comprehensive overview of the structural, photophysical and electrochemical properties of mononuclear copper(I) complexes, typical examples highlighting the most critical structural parameters and their impact on the properties being presented to enlighten future design of photoactive copper(I) complexes. The second section is devoted to their main areas of application (photoredox catalysis of organic reactions and polymerization, hydrogen production, photoreduction of carbon dioxide and dye-sensitized solar cells), illustrating their progression from early systems to the current state-of-the-art and showcasing how some limitations of photoactive copper(I) complexes can be overcome with their high versatility.

Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Transformations of Metal-Organic-Framework-Supported, Site-Isolated Trigonal-Planar Cu(I) Complexes with Labile Ligands

Transition-metal complexes bearing labile ligands can be difficult to isolate and study in solution because of unwanted dinucleation or ligand substitution reactions. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) provide a unique matrix that allows site isolation and stabilization of well-defined transition-metal complexes that may be of importance as moieties for gas adsorption or catalysis. Herein we report the development of an in situ anion metathesis strategy that facilitates the postsynthetic modification of Cu(I) complexes appended to a porous, crystalline MOF. By exchange of coordinated chloride for weakly coordinating anions in the presence of carbon monoxide (CO) or ethylene, a series of labile MOF-appended Cu(I) complexes featuring CO or ethylene ligands are prepared and structurally characterized using X-ray crystallography. These complexes have an uncommon trigonal planar geometry because of the absence of coordinating solvents. The porous host framework allows small and moderately sized molecules to access the isolated Cu(I) sites and displace the "place-holder" CO ligand, mirroring the ligand-exchange processes involved in Cu-centered catalysis.

Aromatic versus Aliphatic α-Diimine Ligands in Heteroleptic Copper(I) Emitters: Photophysical and Electrochemical Properties

The electrochemical and photophysical properties of a heteroleptic Cu(I) complex bearing an aliphatic α-diimine ligand, [Cu(dab)(xantphos)]⁺ (Cu-dab; dab = N,N'-diphenyl-2,3-dimethyl-1,4-diazabutadiene, xantphos = 4,5-bis(diphenylphosphino)-9,9-dimethylxanthene), were evaluated together with those of complexes [Cu(dmp)(xantphos)]⁺ (Cu-dmp; dmp = 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline), [Cu(dmbpy)(xantphos)]⁺ (Cu-dmbpy; dmbpy = 5,5'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine), and [Cu(bq)(xantphos)]⁺ (Cu-bq; bq = 2,2'-biquinoline), bearing aromatic diimine ligands. Cu-dab exhibited a two-step ligand-centered redox behavior, where the first wave corresponded to an electrochemically reversible one-electron reduction process. Although Cu(I)-aromatic diimine complexes Cu-dmp, Cu-dmbpy, and Cu-bq exhibited obvious luminescence from the metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) excited state, Cu-dab did not show any luminescence. Computational studies indicated that this non-luminescent property was caused by the large structural relaxation of Cu-dab during photoexcitation.

Copper-mediated reduction of azides under seemingly oxidising conditions: catalytic and computational studies

The reduction of aryl azides in the presence of water and air and without an obvious reducing agent is reported.