Rhodium-Catalyzed Three-Component Reaction of Alkynes, Arylzinc Chlorides, and Iodomethanes Producing Trisubstituted/Tetrasubstituted Alkenes with/without 1,4-Migration

A three-component reaction of alkynes, arylzinc chlorides, and iodomethanes was found to proceed in the presence of a rhodium catalyst to give high yields of trisubstituted/tetrasubstituted alkenes. The usual arylzinc chlorides only gave trisubstituted alkenes, generated through a migratory carbozincation-cross-coupling sequence, where 1,4-Rh migration from an alkenyl carbon to an aryl carbon occurred. In contrast, 5-membered heteroarylzinc chlorides only gave the tetrasubstituted alkenes via a carborhodation-cross-coupling pathway without 1,4-migration.

Insight into the dual action mechanism of 3V-PPh3 polymers as carriers and ligands in the Rh/3V-PPh3 heterogeneous catalytic hydroformylation of ethylene to propionaldehyde

An experimentally confirmed porous vinyl-functionalized PPh₃ (3V-PPh₃) polymer-supported Rh-based catalyst exhibits the significant advantages of high activity, high stability, and easy separation in the synthesis of propionaldehyde, which fundamentally solves the problem of Rh precious-metal loss. In this paper, the microscopic mechanism and electronic structure characteristics of two kinds of cross-linked 3V-PPh₃ polymer-supported Rh-based catalyst were studied by means of quantum chemistry (QC). With 3V-PPh₃ as the carrier, stable adsorption configurations of Rh and 3V-PPh₃ were investigated, and the results showed that Rh and P had the strongest effects, while the vinyl group enhanced the adsorption strength of Rh. Moreover, it was found that a high concentration of exposed P was beneficial to the dispersion of Rh. With 3V-PPh₃ as the ligand, the properties of the HRh(CO)(P-frame)₃ complex were investigated, and the results of structure analysis indicated that there were strong interactions between Rh and P, which contributed more to the non-loss of Rh. Among the four different configurations, the Rh-P coplanar configuration of cross-linking mode 2 had the highest Rh-P bond energy. The results of AIM analysis suggested that the Rh-P and Rh-C(CO) bonds involve closed-shell (donor-acceptor) interactions. The Mulliken charge and molecular electrostatic potential results revealed that the Rh activity of the Rh and P non-coplanar configuration was higher in the two cross-linking methods. Hopefully, this work will clarify the structure-activity relationship between 3V-PPh₃ polymer and Rh, and provide theoretical guidance for the design and development of high-efficiency heterogeneous catalysts for the hydroformylation of ethylene to propionaldehyde.

Remote rearrangement of the metal center in a (η6-C6Me6)Ru(ii) complex

Reaction of [(η⁶-C₆Me₆)Ru(Ph)(PMe₃)]⁺ with internal alkynes gave rise to the 1,4-Ru migration to form the o-vinylaryl complex, providing the first example of 1,4-metal migration of a group 8 metal center; in one case further isomerization to an η³-allyl complex was observed.

Rhodium-catalysed synthesis of multi-substituted silylindenes from aryl alkynes and hydrosilanes via C–H bond activation

We successfully developed rhodium-catalysed synthesis of multi-substituted silylindenes from 2 equivalents of aryl alkynes and 1 equivalent of hydrosilanes in moderate to good yields via C–H bond activation for the first time.