Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200705927
Coordination Chemistry
A Pincer-Type Anionic Platinum(0) Complex**
Leonid Schwartsburd, Revital Cohen, Leonid Konstantinovski, and David Milstein*
Pincer-type complexes constitute a large family of compounds
that have attracted much recent interest. Among these
compounds, aryl-anchored, d8 pincer complexes of the type
[MII(LCL’)] (M = Ni, Pd, Pt; L = neutral ligand such as
phosphine, amine, dialkyl sulfide) are a major group that
plays important roles in organometallic reactions and mech-
anisms, catalysis, and in the design of new materials.[1] In
contrast, and to our knowledge, no complexes of this type
with the metal in the zero oxidation state have been prepared.
Such d10 [M0(LCL’)] complexes with neutral L ligands and an
“anionic” aryl anchor would be anionic, and would be
expected to possess distinctly different properties to neutral
d10 (M0) complexes. We chose to utilize bulky bis-chelating
pincer-type ligands in this study as they have been shown to be
effective in stabilizing reactive species and have led to
unusual complexes.[1]
complex was not isolated but was trapped with a variety of
electrophiles to give a range of PtII complexes.[4,5]
Herein we report the preparation, characterization, and
computational study of the first thermally stable, monome-
tallic anionic Pt0 complex. The reactivity of this electron-rich,
16-electron PCP-type anionic Pt0 complex shows that it is a
Brønsted base and an effective electron-transfer reagent that
À
is capable of C F activation under exceedingly mild con-
ditions.
Reduction of the bulky PCP-PtII complex 1 (Scheme 1)[6]
with sodium in dry [D8]THF at room temperature overnight
led to a dramatic color change from colorless to dark red. A
We have recently shown that reduction of PCP-type PdII
complexes [Pd(X)C6H3(CH2PiPr2)2] (X = Cl, trifluoroace-
tate) with sodium metal results in collapse of the pincer
system, leading to formation of the diamagnetic binuclear
complex [Pd{C6H3(CH2PiPr2)2}2Pd], which contains a 14-
electron linear Pd0 moiety and a completely nonplanar
“butterfly”-type 16-electron PdII moiety.[2] Oxidation of the
binuclear complex, or its reaction with organic halides,
regenerates the original mononuclear framework.[2]
To avoid collapse of the pincer system upon reduction we
decided to use a PCP-PtII complex with the hope that the
more diffuse nature of the Pt orbitals (compared with Pd)
might stabilize the reduced metal center.[3] In addition,
increasing the steric bulk of the pincer phosphine ligand
might protect the reduced metal center against intermolec-
ular reactions and might lead to a rare monometallic Pt0
anionic complex. We are aware of only one monometallic
anionic Pt0 complex, namely [Pt(Me2NCS2)(PEt3)]À, which
was generated in situ at À788Cby proton abstraction from
the PtII hydride complex [PtH(Me2NCS2)(PEt3)].[4] This
Scheme 1. Reduction of complexes 1 and 3 to form the PCP-Pt0 anion
2 and its oxidation to regenerate the PtII complex. See text for details;
Cp=C5H5.
multinuclear NMR spectroscopy study of the reaction solu-
tion revealed that reduction of complex 1 had taken place to
give quantitative formation of the diamagnetic 16-electron
planar PCP-Pt0 anion 2 (Scheme 1). Thus, the resonance of 1
at d = 66.7 ppm (1JPt,P = 2893 Hz) in the 31P{1H} NMR spec-
trum is replaced by a signal for the new complex 2 at d =
120.5 ppm (1JPt,P = 3874 Hz). The 31P{1H} NMR spectrum of
the solution confirmed that this transformation is quantita-
tive. In addition, the 195Pt{1H} NMR spectrum revealed that
the diagnostic triplet of 1 at d = À4105 ppm (1JP, Pt = 2893 Hz)
[*] L. Schwartsburd, Prof. D. Milstein
Department of Organic Chemistry
Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot (Israel)
Fax: (+972)8-934-4142
E-mail: david.milstein@weizmann.ac.il
is replaced by a new triplet for 2 at d = À4034 ppm (1JP, Pt
=
Dr. R. Cohen, Dr. L. Konstantinovski
Unit of Chemical Research Support
Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot (Israel)
3874 Hz), thus showing that the two phosphorus donor atoms
stay bound to the metal center in 2.[7] The increase in the Pt P
À
[**] We thank Dr. Edward E. Korshin and Elena Poverenov for helpful
discussions. This work was supported by the Israel Science
Foundation, the Program for German–Israeli Cooperation (DIP),
and the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for Molecular Design.
D.M. holds the Israel Matz Professorial Chair of Organic Chemistry.
À
coupling constant is indicative of a decrease of the Pt P bond
1
length upon going from 1 to 2. The H NMR spectrum of 2
exhibits a virtual triplet for the tert-butyl group at d =
1.36 ppm (3JP, H = 6 Hz) and a virtual triplet for the methylene
group at d = 3.56 ppm (2JP, H = 4 Hz); this pattern is character-
istic of strong phosphorus–phosphorus coupling between
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 3603 –3606
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