Angewandte
Chemie
Chemoselective NHC Transmetallation
Relative Lability and Chemoselective Transmetallation of NHC in
Hybrid Phosphine-NHC Ligands: Access to Heterometallic Complexes
Thomas Simler, Pierre Braunstein,* and Andreas A. Danopoulos*
Abstract: The relative lability and transmetallation aptitude of
trialkylphosphine and NHC donors, integrated in semi-rigid
hybrid ligands attached to [Ag4Br4] pseudo-cubanes, lies in
favor of the NHC and is used to selectively access unprece-
dented NHC complexes with heterobimetallic cores, such as
Ag–Cu (4Cy) and Ag–Ir (5tBu). These can be viewed as an
arrested state before the full transmetallation of both donors,
which gives the homodinuclear Cu (3Cy) and Ir (6Cy) com-
plexes. The observed NHC transmetallation aptitude and
reactivity urges caution in the common notion that views the
NHC as a universal spectator.
T
he bonding analogy between phosphines and N-heterocy-
clic carbenes (NHCs), and the stronger s-donor ability of the
latter, implies that NHC ligands are less prone to substitution
than PR3 under comparable molecular environments (that is,
nature of metal, co-ligands, and coordination geometry).[1]
Current computational and experimental methods provide
a solid understanding of metal–NHC bonding across the
periodic table.[2] In late transition metals, and in contrast to
M-PR3, strong and irreversible M–NHC binding dictates the
nature of the complexes formed.[3] In numerous cases,
phosphine substitution by NHCs has been used for the
synthesis of NHC-complexes (for example, Ru,[4] Fe,[5] Ni,[6]
Pd,[7] and Pt[8]). In contrast, the substitution of coordinated
NHCs by phosphines is scarce.[9]
Scheme 1. a) Plausible mechanisms for the transmetallation from Ag–
NHC complexes involving dissociation of the NHC or formation of
bridging NHC intermediates; b) chelating or c) bridging coordination
modes of hybrid P-NHC with Ag and their transmetallation; d) hybrid
P–NHC pro-ligands, previously reported by our group (A and B),[14a]
and studied in this work (1Cy and 1tBu).
À
Within the group 11 metals, the M NHC bond strength
follows the order AuI > CuI > AgI,[1a,10] which underlies the
widespread application of Ag–NHC complexes as reagents
for the synthesis of diverse transition metal–NHC complexes
by transmetallation. The detailed mechanisms of transmetal-
lation remain vague:[11] plausible propositions include the
involvement of free NHCs formed in situ after the establish-
ment of equilibria on dissolution of the Ag–NHC species, or
the presence of transient (hetero)di- or poly-nuclear inter-
mediates with bridging NHC ligands (Scheme 1a),[12] by
analogy with the now recognized bridging aptitude of
phosphines.[13] Recent cases of apparently transmetallation-
inert species,[14] anomalous “reverse transmetallations” to
Ag,[15] and facile NHC dissociation from heavier transition
metals are relevant and perplexing.[16] Understanding the
elementary steps of transmetallation and the associated
driving forces constitute important research targets with
implications in homogeneous catalysis, supramolecular self-
assembly, and materials synthesis.
Hybrid ligands comprising NHC and phosphine donors
are of considerable interest for the study of selective metal–
ligand interactions.[17] Whereas Ir pincer complexes are
directly accessible from A (Scheme 1d),[14a] but not by
transmetallation from the corresponding Ag complex, sug-
gesting that the pathways shown in Scheme 1b,c were not
operative, transmetallations of other P-NHC hybrid ligands
from Ag to Ru,[18] Pd[14b,19] and Rh[20] have been reported.
To gain insight into this unexpected behavior, we targeted
the new ligands 1Cy and 1tBu, containing alkyl-phosphine
donors (electronically more similar to NHC) (Scheme 1d). In
principle, they can adopt chelating (b(i)) or bridging (c(i))
[*] T. Simler, Dr. P. Braunstein, Dr. A. A. Danopoulos
Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination
Institut de Chimie (UMR 7177 CNRS)
UniversitØ de Strasbourg
4 rue Blaise Pascal, 67081 Strasbourg Cedex (France)
E-mail: braunstein@unistra.fr
Dr. A. A. Danopoulos
Institute for Advanced Study (USIAS), UniversitØ de Strasbourg
4 rue Blaise Pascal, 67081 Strasbourg Cedex (France)
E-mail: danopoulos@unistra.fr
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 13691 –13695
ꢀ 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
13691