Template Syntheses of Iron(II) Complexes Containing Chiral P−N−N−P and P−N−N Ligands

Zn-Templated synthesis of substituted (2,6-diimine)pyridine proligands and evaluation of their iron complexes as anolytes for flow battery applications

Pseudo-octahedral iron complexes supported by tridentate N^N^N-binding, redox 'non-innocent' diiminepyridine (DIP) ligands exhibit multiple reversible ligand-based reductions that suggest the potential application of these complexes as anolytes in redox flow batteries (RFBs). When bearing aryl groups at the imine nitrogens, substitution at the 4-position can be used to tune these redox potentials and impact other properties relevant to RFB applications, such as solubility and stability over extended cycling. DIP ligands bearing electron-withdrawing groups (EWGs) in this position, however, can be challenging to isolate via typical condensation routes involving para-substituted anilines and 2,6-diacetylpyridine. In this work, we demonstrate a high-yielding Zn-templated synthesis of DIP ligands bearing strong EWGs. The synthesis and electrochemical characterization of iron(ii) complexes of these ligands is also described, along with properties relevant to their potential application as RFB anolytes.

PNN′ & P2NN′ ligands via reductive amination with phosphine aldehydes: synthesis and base-metal coordination chemistry

Phosphorus-donor “arms” are readily added to amines in order to enable sturdy base metal coordination.

From imine to amine: an unexpected left turn. Cis-β iron(ii) PNNP' precatalysts for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone

A slight change in the iron catalyst structure (amine arm with PEt₂ to imine arm with PPh₂) results in a complete reversal of the enantioselectivity toward ketone reduction.

A novel PNN ligand bearing an orthophenylene group and a primary amine was synthesized with the aid of a palladium-catalyzed amination and reacted with phosphonium dimers [–PR₂CH₂CH(OH)–]₂[Br]₂ R = Et, iPr, Cy, Ph, xylyl, and o-Tol, and [Fe(OH₂)₆]²⁺ to produce a new series of cis-β iron(ii) PNNP′ precatalysts cis-β-[Fe(Br)(CO)(PNNP′)]BPh₄ as a pair of diastereomers. The more stable orthophenylene amido group was chosen to imitate and replace the enamido moiety of a highly active iron precatalyst for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH) of ketones in an attempt to prevent its deactivation caused by reduction of the enamido group. This objective was partially achieved using the complex with a PEt₂ group which catalyzed the transfer hydrogenation in isopropanol of 150 000 equivalents of acetophenone to racemic 1-phenylethanol. With a low acetophenone to catalyst ratio of 500 to 1, the catalytic activity was moderate and the enantiomeric excess (ee) of the product 1-phenylethanol ranged surprisingly from 94% (R) to 95% (S) depending on the nature of PR₂ and whether the precatalyst contained an imine or amine donor. The amine precatalyst with a PEt₂-group produced a more stable hydride species when activated, allowing the reaction mixture to be heated to 75 °C to obtain a TON of 8821 for acetophenone while retaining the high ee of 95% (S). The activation pathway in basic isopropanol (iPrOH) was studied for three precatalysts to elucidate that the cis-β precatalysts rearrange to form trans hydride complexes. The study suggests that the enantioselectivity of these complexes is determined by from which side of the PNNP′ plane the hydride transfer occurs.

Exploiting metal-ligand bifunctional reactions in the design of iron asymmetric hydrogenation catalysts

This is an Account of our development of iron-based catalysts for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH) and asymmetric pressure hydrogenation (AH) of ketones and imines. These chemical processes provide enantiopure alcohols and amines for use in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, fragrance, and other fine chemical industries. Fundamental principles of bifunctional reactivity obtained by studies of ruthenium catalysts by Noyori's group and our own with tetradentate ligands with tertiary phosphine and secondary amine donor groups were applied to improve the performance of these first iron(II) catalysts. In particular the correct positioning of a bifunctional H-Fe-NH unit in an iron hydride amine complex leads to exceptional catalyst activity because of the low energy barrier of dihydrogen transfer to the polar bond of the substrate. In addition the ligand structure with this NH group along with an asymmetric array of aryl groups orients the incoming substrate by hydrogen-bonding, and steric interactions provide the hydrogenated product in high enantioselectivity for several classes of substrates. Enantiomerically pure diamines or diphenylphosphino-amine compounds are used as the source of the asymmetry in the tetradentate ligands formed by the condensation of the amines with dialkyl- or diaryl-phosphinoaldehydes, a synthesis that is templated by Fe(II). The commercially available ortho-diphenylphosphinobenzaldehyde was used in the initial studies, but then diaryl-phosphinoacetaldehydes were found to produce much more effective ligands for iron(II). Once the mechanism of catalysis became clearer, the iron-templated synthesis of (S,S)-PAr2CH2CH2NHCHPhCHPhNH2 ligand precursors was developed to specifically introduce a secondary amine in the precatalyst structures. The reaction of a precatalyst with strong base yields a key iron-amido complex that reacts with isopropanol (in ATH) or dihydrogen (in AH) to generate an iron hydride with the Fe-H bond parallel to the secondary amine N-H. In the AH reactions, the correct acidity of the intermediate iron-dihydrogen complex and correct basicity of the amide are important factors for the heterolytic splitting of the dihydrogen to generate the H-Fe-N-H unit; the acidity of dihydrogen complexes including those found in hydrogenases can be estimated by a simple additive ligand acidity constant method. The placement of the hydridic-protonic Fe-H···HN interaction in the asymmetric catalyst structure influences the enantioinduction. The sense of enantioinduction is predictable from the structure of the H-Fe-N-H-containing catalyst interacting with the ketone in the same way as related H-Ru-N-H-containing catalysts. The modular construction of the catalysts permits large variations in order to produce alcohol or amine products with enantiomeric excess in the 90-100% range in several cases.

{N,N'-Bis-[2-(di-phenyl-phosphan-yl)ethan-1-yl-idene]ethyl-enedi-amine}bromido-(p-toluene-sulfonyl-methyl isocyanide)iron(II) tetra-phenyl-borate

In the title compound, [FeBr(C₉H₉NO₂S)(C₃₀H₃₀N₂P₂)][B(C₆H₅)₄], the Fe^II ion is in a distorted octa­hedral CBrN₂P₂ coordination geometry with a P—Fe—P angle of 109.95 (3)°. The relative orientation of the p-toluene­sulfonyl­methyl isocyanide ligand is defined by the C—S—C—N torsion angle of 67.1 (2)°. In the crystal, pairs of weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds connect the cations into inversion dimers, forming R₂²(8) rings.

The mechanism of efficient asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone using an iron(II) complex containing an (S,S)-Ph2PCH2CH═NCHPhCHPhN═CHCH2PPh2 ligand: partial ligand reduction is the key

On the basis of a kinetic study and other evidence, we propose a mechanism of activation and operation of a highly active system generated from the precatalyst trans-[Fe(CO)(Br)(Ph(2)PCH(2)CH═N-((S,S)-C(Ph)H-C(Ph)H)-N═CHCH(2)PPh(2))][BPh(4)] (2) for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone in basic isopropanol. An induction period for catalyst activation is observed before the catalytic production of 1-phenethanol. The activation step is proposed to involve a rapid reaction of 2 with excess base to give an ene-amido complex [Fe(CO)(Ph(2)PCH(2)CH═N-((S,S)-C(Ph)H-C(Ph)H)-NCH═CHPPh(2))](+) (Fe(p)) and a bis(enamido) complex Fe(CO)(Ph(2)PCH═CH-N-(S,S-CH(Ph)CH(Ph))-N-CH═CHPPh(2)) (5); 5 was partially characterized. The slow step in the catalyst activation is thought to be the reaction of Fe(p) with isopropoxide to give the catalytically active amido-(ene-amido) complex Fe(a) with a half-reduced, deprotonated PNNP ligand. This can be trapped by reaction with HCl in ether to give, after isolation with NaBPh(4), [Fe(CO)(Cl)(Ph(2)PCH(2)CH(2)N(H)-((S,S)-CH(Ph)CH(Ph))-N═CHCH(2)PPh(2))][BPh(4)] (7) which was characterized using multinuclear NMR and high-resolution mass spectrometry. When compound 7 is treated with base, it directly enters the catalytic cycle with no induction period. A precatalyst with the fully reduced P-NH-NH-P ligand was prepared and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. It was found to be much less active than 2 or 7. Reaction profiles obtained by varying the initial concentrations of acetophenone, precatalyst, base, and acetone and by varying the temperature were fit to the kinetic model corresponding to the proposed mechanism by numerical simulation to obtain a unique set of rate constants and thermodynamic parameters.

The bis(acetonitrile-κN)bis[N,N-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)ethanamine-κ2P,P']iron(II) tetrabromidoferrate(II) and μ-oxido-bis[tribromidoferrate(III)] complex salts

Orange crystals of bis(acetonitrile-κN)bis[N,N-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)ethanamine-κ(2)P,P']iron(II) tetrabromidoferrate(II), [Fe(CH(3)CN)(2)(C(26)H(25)NP(2))(2)][FeBr(4)], (I), and red crystals of bis(acetonitrile-κN)bis[N,N-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)ethanamine-κ(2)P,P']iron(II) μ-oxido-bis[tribromidoferrate(III)], [Fe(CH(3)CN)(2)(C(26)H(25)NP(2))(2)][Fe(2)Br(6)O], (II), were obtained from the same solution after prolonged exposure to atmospheric oxygen, resulting in partial oxidation of the [FeBr(4)](2-) anion to the [Br(3)FeOFeBr(3)](2-) anion. The asymmetric unit of (I) consists of three independent cations, one on a general position and two on inversion centres, with two anions, required to balance the charge, located on general positions. The asymmetric unit of (II) consists of two independent cations and two anions, all on special positions. The geometric parameters within the coordination environments of the cations do not differ significantly, with the major differences being in the orientation of the phenyl rings on the bidentate phosphane ligand. The ethyl substituent in the cation of (II) and the Br atoms in the anions of (II) are disordered. The P-Fe-P bite angles represent the smallest angles reported to date for octahedral Fe(II) complexes containing bidentate phosphine ligands with MeCN in the axial positions, ranging from 70.82 (3) to 70.98 (4)°. The average Fe-Br bond distances of 2.46 (2) and 2.36 (2) Å in the [FeBr(4)](2-) and [Br(3)FeOFeBr(3)](2-) anions, respectively, illustrate the differences in the Fe oxidation states.

Effect of the structure of the diamine backbone of P-N-N-P ligands in iron(II) complexes on catalytic activity in the transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone

The asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones can be efficiently accomplished using catalysts that are based on platinum group metals which are more toxic and less abundant than iron. For that reason the discovery of iron based catalysts for the use in this transformation is important. To address this issue, we synthesized a new series of iron(II)-based precatalysts trans-[Fe(Br)(CO)(PPh(2)CH(2)CH═NCHRCHRN═CHCH(2)PPh(2))]BPh(4) (5a-5d) containing P-N-N-P ligands with the diamines (R,R)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane (a), (R,R)-1,2-diphenyl-1,2-diaminoethane (b), (R,R)-1,2-di(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,2-diaminoethane (c), and ethylenediamine (d) incorporated in the backbone using a convenient one-pot synthesis using readily available starting materials. All of the complexes, when activated with a base, show a very high activity in the transfer hydrogenation catalysis of acetophenone, using 2-propanol as a reducing agent under mild conditions. A comparison of the TOF of complexes 5a-5d show that the catalytic activity of complexes increase as the size of the substituents in the backbone of ligands increases (d < a < b = c).

Efficient asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones catalyzed by an iron complex containing a P-N-N-P tetradentate ligand formed by template synthesis

A distorted iron complex formed by template synthesis is the basis of a very efficient and economical catalyst system for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones for the production of valuable enantioenriched alcohols.