Carbon−Oxygen Bond Forming Mechanisms in Rhenium Oxo-Alkyl Complexes

Mechanism of Nitrogen-Carbon Bond Formation from Iron(IV) Disilylhydrazido Intermediates during N2 Reduction

We recently reported a reaction sequence that activates C-H bonds in simple arenes as well as the N-N triple bond in N₂, delivering the aryl group to N₂ to form a new N-C bond (Nature 2020, 584, 221). This enables the transformation of abundant feedstocks (arenes and N₂) into N-containing organic compounds. The key N-C bond forming step occurs upon partial silylation of N₂. However, the pathway through which reduction, silylation, and migration occurred was unknown. Here, we describe synthetic, structural, magnetic, spectroscopic, kinetic, and computational studies that elucidate the steps of this transformation. N₂ must be silylated twice at the distal N atom before aryl migration can occur, and sequential silyl radical and silyl cation addition is a kinetically competent pathway to a formally iron(IV)-NN(SiMe₃)₂ intermediate that can be isolated at low temperature. Kinetic studies show its first-order conversion to the migrated product, and DFT calculations indicate a concerted transition state for migration. The electronic structure of the formally iron(IV) intermediate is examined using DFT and CASSCF calculations, which reveal contributions from iron(II) and iron(III) resonance forms with oxidized NNSi₂ ligands. The depletion of electron density from the Fe-coordinated N atom makes it electrophilic enough to accept the incoming aryl group. This new pathway for the N-C bond formation offers a method for functionalizing N₂ using organometallic chemistry.

A homolytic oxy-functionalization mechanism: intermolecular hydrocarbyl migration from M–R to vanadate oxo

Carbon–oxygen bond formation proceeds via intermolecular phenyl migration from OVCl₂Ph to the oxo of OVCl₃.

Method and Basis Set Analysis of Oxorhenium(V) Complexes for Theoretical Calculations

A variety of method and basis set combinations has been evaluated for monooxorhenium(V) complexes with N, O, P, S, Cl, and Se donor atoms. The geometries and energies obtained are compared to both high-level computations and literature structures. These calculations show that the PBE0 method outperforms the B3LYP method with respect to both structure and energetics. The combination of 6-31G** basis set on the nonmetal atoms and LANL2TZ effective core potential on the rhenium center gives reliable equilibrium structures with minimal computational resources for both model and literature compounds. Single-point energy calculations at the PBE0/LANL2TZ,6-311+G* level of theory are recommended for energetics.