C-H Bond ActiVation on a Cp* Ligand
Organometallics, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2009 313
eropolynuclear species.29–47 Furthermore, they present a varied
and rich chemistry related to several processes, among which
are (i) the phosphorus-carbon bond cleavage to generate
phosphido and alkynyl fragments via interaction with metal
carbonyl clusters,29,48-50 (ii) their possible engagement in
characteristic insertion reactions of the triple bonds35,51-55 or
their activation with electrophilic or nucleophilic substrates,56-58
and also (iii) intermolecular coupling of the alkynyl moieties
leading to the association of two coordinated alkynylphos-
phines.31,52,59-66 The last reactions are of particular interest,
owing to the fact that they are employed in the synthesis of
macrocyclic systems from bis(diphenylphosphino) complexes
with high atom efficiency61,62 and in the study of Bergman-
cyclization processes of bis(phosphino)enediynes upon com-
plexation to metal ions.63,64,66 Our research group has obtained
very interesting results in the study of these coupling reactions
on platinum and palladium precursors containing at least two
alkynylphosphines, having reported the formation of novel
coordinated diphosphinonaphthalene or 1,2-diarylalkenyl-1,2-
diphosphine ligands, activated by complexation of a “cis-
Pt(C6F5)2” fragment,35,52 under thermal or photochemical con-
ditions.31
Following from this work, and with the aim of studying the
influence of the geometry and the metal center in these types of
processes, we have tried to induce thermally similar coupling
reactions in the cationic rhodium(III) complex [Rh(η5-Cp*)
Cl(PPh2Ct CPh)2](TfO). Nevertheless, instead of a coupling
process, the reaction progresses through the unexpected activation
of one or two C-H bonds on the Cp* ligand and their formal
addition to the triple bond of the phosphine ligands, giving rise to
the formation of novel cyclopentadienyl-ene-phosphine ligands,
which has no precedent in the literature. The C-H bond activation
of η5-coordinated Cp* ligands constitutes an important reaction,
which affords tetramethylfulvene compounds14,67-73 or species with
functionalized cyclopentadienyl ligands.5,7,9,11,12,15,18,21,22,24,67,71,73,74
As this process is commonly activated by heat7,9,15,67,69,70 or by
treatment with base,3,5,24,68,73,74 we have also examined the behavior
of [Rh(η5-Cp*)Cl(PPh2Ct CPh)2](CF3SO3) (1) in tetrahydrofuran
in the presence of a weak base such as Na2CO3.
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Synthetic Studies. The results of the behavior of the complex
[Rh(η5-Cp*)Cl(PPh2Ct CPh)2](CF3SO3) (1) under thermal or
basic conditions are summarized in Scheme 1. As it is shown,
the treatment of [Rh(η5-Cp*)Cl(PPh2Ct CPh)2](CF3SO3) (1)
with a weak base such as Na2CO3 (Scheme 1, step i) in
tetrahydrofuran under reflux conditions (16 h) evolves with the
formation of the new asymmetrical 1,2-dihydroactivated com-
plex [Rh{κ2PP′:η5-1,2-(PPh2CH2CPhdCH)C5Me3(CH2CPhd
CHPPh2)}Cl](CF3SO3) (3). The complex is obtained impure with
a minute amount of the corresponding symmetrical 1,2-isomer
[Rh{κ2PP′:η5-C5Me3-1,2-(CH2CPhdCHPPh2)2}Cl](CF3SO3)
(3′), which can be eliminated by crystallization from acetone/
hexane to give pure 3 as an orange solid (see the Experimental
Section). The formation of the asymmetrical 1,2-diactivated
complex 3 involves a double-hydroalkylation reaction (formation
of 3′), together with an additional isomerization process, leading
to the unsaturated tridentate ligand {1,2-(PPh2CH2CPhdCH)
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