Dioxygen Insertion Studies Into Platinum And Palladium Alkyl Complexes PDF Download

Understanding the reactivity of metal complexes with molecular oxygen will facilitate the development of catalysts that can enable the widespread use of molecular oxygen as an oxidant for organic synthesis. This thesis presents two new classes of reactions between metal complexes and molecular oxygen. Neutral five-coordinate Pt complexes were tested for reactivity in the presence of molecular oxygen. In arene solution, the complexes (t̳B̳u̳̳M̳e̳2̳ nacnac)PtMe3 (1, t̳̳B̳u̳M̳e̳2̳ nacnac- = [((4-tBu-2,6-Me2C6H2)NC(CH3))2CH]-), (M̳e̳3̳ Me-nacnac)PtMe3 (2, M̳e̳3̳ Me-nacnac- = [((2,4,6-Me3C6H2)NC(CH3))2CCH3]-), and (t̳B̳u̳2̳ PyPyr)PtMe3 (3, t̳B̳u̳2̳ PyPyr- = 3,5-di-tert-butyl-2-(2-pyridyl)pyrrolide) reacted immediately with oxygen to form peroxo species in which two oxygen atoms bridge between the metal center and a carbon atom in the ligand backbone. In contrast, no reaction between ( i̳P̳r̳2̳ AnIm)PtMe3 (4a, i̳P̳r̳2̳ AnIm− = [o- C66H4-{N(C6H3 i Pr2)}(CH=NC6H3 i Pr2)]−) or (M̳e̳3̳ AnIm)PtMe3 (4b, M̳e̳̳3̳ AnIm− = [o-C6H4- {N(C6H2Me3)}(CH=NC6H2Me3)]−) and oxygen was observed. As activation of oxygen by five- coordinate PtIV species was found to involve cooperation between the metal center and the ligand, the ability of the ligand to participate in the oxygen binding appears to be a vital component. Oxygen atom transfer reactions of the novel peroxo species are also presented. In a separate study, an unusual reaction involving the activation of both molecular oxygen and a C-H bond at the same metal center was investigated. Pd(P(Ar)(tBu)2)2 (15, Ar = naphthyl) was found to react with molecular oxygen at room temperature in arene solvent to form a hydroxide dimer in which one equivalent of phosphine per Pd was lost and the remaining phosphine was cyclometalated through the naphthyl ring. At low temperature, two intermediates were observed. The nature of these intermediates suggests a mechanism involving initial reaction of Pd(P(Ar) (tBu)2)2 with O2 followed by the C-H activation step. In a final chapter unrelated to oxygen reactivity, the generation and characterization of a gold III̳-alkene complex by NMR and X-ray crystallography is presented. Such species have been proposed as intermediates in catalytic reactions but until recently none had been observed.