Mechanism of Silver-Catalyzed [2+2] Cycloaddition between Siloxy-Alkynes and Carbonyl Compound: A Silylium Ion Migration Approach

π-Bonding of Group 11 Metals to a Tantalum Alkylidyne Alkyl Complex Promotes Unusual Tautomerism to Bis-alkylidene and CO2 to Ketenyl Transformation

A salt metathesis synthetic strategy is used to access rare tantalum/coinage metal (Cu, Ag, Au) heterobimetallic complexes. Specifically, complex [Li(THF)2][Ta(CtBu)(CH2tBu)3], 1, reacts with (IPr)MCl (M = Cu, Ag, Au, IPr = 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene) to afford the alkylidyne-bridged species [Ta(CH2tBu)3(μ-CtBu)M(IPr)] 2-M. Interestingly, π-bonding of group 11 metals to the Ta─C moiety promotes a rare alkylidyne alkyl to bis-alkylidene tautomerism, in which compounds 2-M are in equilibrium with [Ta(CHtBu)(CH2tBu)2(μ-CHtBu)M(IPr)] 3-M. This equilibrium was studied in detail using NMR spectroscopy and computational studies. This reveals that the equilibrium position is strongly dependent on the nature of the coinage metal going down the group 11 triad, thus offering a new valuable avenue for controlling this phenomenon. Furthermore, we show that these uncommon bimetallic couples could open attractive opportunities for synergistic reactivity. We notably report an uncommon deoxygenative carbyne transfer to CO2 resulting in rare examples of coinage metal ketenyl species, (tBuCCO)M(IPr), 4-M (M = Cu, Ag, Au). In the case of the Ta/Li analogue 1, the bis(alkylidene) tautomer is not detected, and the reaction with CO2 does not cleanly yield ketenyl species, which highlights the pivotal role played by the coinage metal partner in controlling these unconventional reactions.

Silylium ion migration dominated hydroamidation of siloxy-alkynes

The mechanism of silver-catalyzed hydroamidation of siloxy-alkynes reaction remains controversial. Using density functional theory (DFT), we revealed that the reaction takes place through a silylium ion migration mediated hydroamination (SMH) pathway. The SMH pathway goes through two steps, the first step is Ag+ promoted proton and silylium ion exchange between siloxy-alkynes and amide, leading to ketene and silyl-imines, the second step is Ag+ catalyzed nucleophilic addition between ketene and silyl-imines, following with a silylium ion migration afford the final product. In this reaction, Ag+ activates the siloxy-alkyne into silylium ion (TIPS+) and silver-ketene through the p-π conjugate effect, the silylium ion then catalyzes the reaction. According to our calculation, the scopes of alkynes in this reaction may be extended to silyl-substituted ynamines or silyl-substituted ynamides. The scopes of amide may be extended into the p-π conjugate system such as diazoles, diazepines, etc. Our calculations also reveal a concise way to construct enamides through Ag+ catalyzed nucleophilic addition between substituted-ketenes and silyl-substituted p-π conjugate system.