Synthesis, structure, and reactivity of a dihydrido borenium cation

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.201103197

Bottled! The employment of hexaphenylcarbodiphosphorane as ancillary ligand has allowed the isolation of the otherwise transient dihydrido borenium cation.

Full text of DOI:10.1002/anie.201103197

Communications
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201103197
Borenium Cations
Synthesis, Structure, and Reactivity of a Dihydrido Borenium Cation**
Blanca Inꢀs, Mahendra Patil, Javier Carreras, Richard Goddard, Walter Thiel, and
Manuel Alcarazo*
Dedicated to Professor Wolfgang Petz
According to the Nçth terminology, borenium cations are
singly charged BIII-derived cationic species possessing a
trigonal environment around boron.[1] As expected on the
basis of these structural features, borenium cations are very
potent electrophiles. This reactivity has recently found
application in the borylation of aromatic and heteroaromatic
rings, which has sparked great attention owing to its synthetic
potential to directly provide aryl boronate esters and other
Suzuki–Miyaura coupling partners.[2]
atom.[5] Furthermore, owing to the missing steric protection
from the hydride substituents, all attempts to isolate it by
hydride abstraction from L!BH3 adducts were unsuccessful,
regardless of the nature of the ligand L employed (amines,
pyridines, phosphines). In light of low-temperature multi-
nuclear NMR spectroscopy and reactivity data, it has been
postulated that the transient dihydridoborenium cation
generated does not accumulate in these reactions, but rather
undergoes rapid trapping by the borane adduct employed as
starting material, thus producing a hydride-bridged cationic
dimer that resists abstraction of a second hydride.[6]
The analysis outlined above indicates that a novel
synthetic strategy toward the isolation of compounds con-
taining the elusive dihydrido borenium cation has to be
developed. In this regard, we envisaged that the use of a
monodentate neutral ligand that is capable of simultaneous
s and p donation may provide sufficient stabilization to
attenuate the reactivity of dihydrido borenium cations to a
level that allows their isolation.
Despite this fact, there are only few persistent compounds
containing borenium cations that have been isolated. Their
preparation relies on two main approaches (Scheme 1): the
To put this design concept into practice, we considered
hexaphenylcarbodiphosphorane 1 as the ligand that may
fulfill the necessary electronic requirements. Computational
investigations by Tonner and Frenking on the nature of this
and related compounds have revealed that they should be
considered to contain two phosphine ligands coordinated to a
central zero-valent carbon atom that retains its four valence
electrons, which are thus all available for donation.[7] This
view was later confirmed experimentally.[8] However, in most
of the reported examples, the central carbon atom donates
two electron pairs to two different electrophiles, one pair to
each, whereas the donation of two electron pairs to the same
acceptor has been clearly underrepresented (Scheme 2).[9]
Thus, we allowed carbodiphosphorane 1 to react with
borane–dimethylsulfide and isolated adduct 2 as a bright
Scheme 1. Main strategies for the preparation of borenium cations.
embedding of the boron center in a heterocyclic scaffold with
a bidentate monoanionic LXꢀ ligand[3] (in A) or the use of a
strong s-donor monodentate ligand L in concurrence with
two bulky aromatic substituents that mainly provide steric
protection (in B).[4]
However, neither of these procedures allows for the
preparation of some seemingly simple compounds. For
example, the parent borenium structure, the dihydrido
cation [L!BH2]+, has still not been isolated. It cannot be
made by the chelating ligand approach because that would
require at least two available coordination sites at the boron
[*] Dr. B. Inꢀs, Dr. M. Patil, Dr. J. Carreras, Dr. R. Goddard,
Prof. Dr. W. Thiel, Dr. M. Alcarazo
Max-Planck-Institut fꢁr Kohlenforschung
45470 Mꢁlheim an der Ruhr (Germany)
E-mail: alcarazo@mpi-muelheim.mpg.de
[**] Generous financial support by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie
is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Prof. A. Fꢁrstner for constant
encouragement and support, C. Laurich, Max-Planck-Institut fꢁr
Bioanorganische Chemie, Mꢁlheim an der Ruhr for recording
electrochemical data, and Prof. C. W. Lehmann and J. Rust for the
elucidation of structures 3 and 4. B.I. thanks the regional govern-
ment of the Basque Country (Spain) for support.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
under http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201103197.
Scheme 2. The new strategy, which uses a ligand that can act simulta-
neously as a s and p donor.
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Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 8400 –8403

yellow solid in quantitative yield (Scheme 2).[10] The solution
of 2 becomes colorless upon treatment with one equivalent of
B(C6F5)3. The 11B NMR spectrum indicated the generation of
ꢀ
the borohydride anion HB(C6F5)3
(d = ꢀ24.0 ppm;
1J(1H,11B) = 92 Hz), while complete consumption of B(C6F5)3
was confirmed by 19F NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, the
original 11B NMR resonance of
2
(d = ꢀ22.7 ppm;
1J(1H,11B) = 84 Hz) disappeared and a new broad signal at
1
d = 56.6 ppm emerged. Moreover, no H NMR signal consis-
tent with a hydride-bridged structure could be observed,
whereas a broad triplet at d = 5.38 ppm (1J(1H,11B) = 29 Hz)
was clearly visible. All of these data suggest the formation of
the dihydrido borenium borohydride 3, an interpretation that
was validated by X-ray crystallographic analysis.
Figure 1 depicts the ORTEP diagram of 3, which is, to the
best of our knowledge, the first isolated compound containing
a dihydridoborenium cation. In this molecule, the boron atom
Figure 2. DFT optimized geometry of 3 with a plot of the HOMO.
C and 11% at B). This explains the calculated low Wiberg
bond index between these two atoms (1.21), which is
consistent with the recorded distances from crystallography.
Energy decomposition analysis indicates that s donation
=
contributes about twice as much to the stability of the C B
bond as p donation (see the Supporting Information for
details).
Compound 3 readily reacts with 4-dimethylaminopyridine
(DMAP) or 1-mesitylimidazole to yield the corresponding
boronium cations 4 and 5, respectively (Scheme 3). The X-ray
structure of 4 (Figure 3) is quite informative. After coordina-
ꢀ
tion of DMAP, the C1 B1 distance in 4 (1.6376(16) ꢀ) adopts
ꢀ
a value that is typical for a C B single bond. Noteworthy are
the distances between the central carbon and the flanking
Figure 1. Crystal structure of 3. Hydrogen atoms not directly bonded
to boron and the HB(C6F5)3 anion are omitted for clarity; ellipsoids are
set at 50% probability. Sum of angles around B1 360.08, torsion angle
P1-C1-B1-H1a 1.68.[11]
adopts a trigonal planar environment, which allows the p lone
pair of the central carbon atom to overlap with the empty
ꢀ
p orbital at boron. As a result, the C1 B1 distance in 3
ꢀ
(1.5030(17) ꢀ) is shorter than the C B single bonds reported
Scheme 3. Reactivity of 3 toward nucleophiles.
for other borenium cations (1.62–1.58 ꢀ).[12] It should be
=
noted however that it is longer than in typical C B bonds
(1.35–1.45 ꢀ)[13] while it compares quite well with the C B
ꢀ
distances reported for borabenzenes (1.50–1.47 ꢀ), where the
[14]
ꢀ
C B bond order is 1.5. Thus, the p interaction, although
essential for the stability of 3, might not be very strong.
In an attempt to clarify the electronic nature of 3, density
functional calculations at the B3LYP/6-31G* level were
performed. The optimized structure closely matches the
experimental X-ray data. According to natural population
analysis, each phosphorus atom bears a large positive charge
(+ 1.74e), while on boron the positive charge is much smaller
(+ 0.25e). Interestingly, the central carbon atom directly
bonded to boron still carries quite a large negative charge
(ꢀ1.39e). Furthermore, inspection of the frontier orbitals
reveals that the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)
Figure 3. Crystal structure of 4. Hydrogen atoms not directly bonded
to boron and the HB(C6F5)3 anion are omitted for clarity; ellipsoids are
set at 50% probability.[11]
ꢀ
is the C B p-bonding orbital that is strongly polarized toward
the carbon atom (see Figure 2; Mulliken populations 50% at
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Communications
phosphorus atoms, which are now shorter than in 3. This
essential role for the actual isolation of compounds containing
dihydridoborenium cations.
suggests that the excess p electron density on the central
carbon, which can no longer be donated to boron, is now
back-donated to the two surrounding phosphine ligands,
In summary, the synthesis of the first isolable compound
containing a dihydridoborenium cation moiety has been
achieved by the use of a new strategy that utilizes carbodi-
phosphoranes as monodentate ligands acting simultaneously
as stabilizing s and p donors. Moreover, the bonding situation
and reactivity of the resulting borenium cation have been
studied. We now plan to extend this strategy to the isolation of
other highly electrophilic species based on boron or other
elements.
ꢀ
thereby increasing the computed C P bond order from 1.00 in
3 to 1.10 in 4.
To better understand the properties of 3, cyclic voltam-
metry experiments were carried out. Compound 3 undergoes
an irreversible reduction at ꢀ2.67 V (vs. Fc/Fc+), a value that
is much more negative than that of other borenium cations
and similar to the reduction potential of neutral triarylbor-
anes.[15] This result again reflects the strong donor ability of 1.
Its outstanding qualities as a ligand are better appreciated
Received: May 10, 2011
Published online: July 14, 2011
when hydride abstraction from carbene–borane
6 is
attempted (Scheme 4).[16] Adduct 6 contains an N-heterocy-
Keywords: borenium cation · boron · carbodiphosphorane ·
.
ligand design · reactive intermediates
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