.
Angewandte
Communications
Reaction Mechanisms
À
Exceedingly Facile Ph X Activation (X = Cl, Br, I) with
Ruthenium(II): Arresting Kinetics, Autocatalysis, and Mechanisms**
Fedor M. Miloserdov, David McKay, Bianca K. MuÇoz, Hamidreza Samouei,
Stuart A. Macgregor,* and Vladimir V. Grushin*
Abstract: [(Ph3P)3Ru(L)(H)2] (where L = H2 (1) in the
are particularly challenging substrates because of the strength
[2]
À
À
presence of styrene, Ph3P (3), and N2 (4)) cleave the Ph X
and low reactivity of the Ar Cl bond. High-cost bulky,
À
bond (X = Cl, Br, I) at RT to give [(Ph3P)3RuH(X)] (2) and
PhH. A combined experimental and DFT study points to
[(Ph3P)3Ru(H)2] as the reactive species generated upon
spontaneous loss of L from 3 and 4. The reaction of 3 with
excess PhI displays striking kinetics which initially appears
zeroth order in Ru. However mechanistic studies reveal that
this is due to autocatalysis comprising two factors: 1) complex
2, originating from the initial PhI activation with 3, is roughly
electron-rich phosphine ligands are usually required for Ar
Cl oxidative addition to Pd0, which is most widely used in
cross-coupling reactions.[2,3] Activation of chloroarenes as
well as aryl bromides and iodides with metals besides Pd and
Ni are rare.[2,4,5]
By far the lowest-cost platinum-group metal, ruthenium,
À
is highly attractive for Ar X activation. However, examples
of such reactions are rare, especially under mild conditions.
Carbonyl- and PPh3-ligated Ru complexes can cleave the less
À
as reactive toward PhI as 3 itself; and 2) the Ph I bond
À
cleavage with the just-produced 2 gives rise to [(Ph3P)2RuI2],
which quickly comproportionates with the still-present 3 to
recover 2. Both the initial and onward activation reactions
inert C X bonds of iodo- and bromobenzene and -toluene,
but only at 1258C.[6] With bulky electron-rich Cy3P co-ligands,
[7a,b]
À
Ru can activate the Ph I bond at ambient temperature,
but the Ar Cl bond requires 808C.[7c] In general, ruthenium-
À
involve PPh3 dissociation, PhI coordination to Ru through I,
2
À
rearrangement to a h -PhI intermediate, and Ph I oxidative
addition.
catalyzed arylation reactions with chloroarenes occur only at
120–1508C.[8] Herein we report unprecedentedly facile (room
temperature) activation of iodo-, bromo-, and even chlor-
obenzene with simple PPh3-based Ru complexes, with no
need to employ electron-rich bulky phosphine ligands. The
E
fficient activation of inert bonds is a major goal of
organometallic chemistry and catalysis with metal com-
plexes.[1] The C X (X = Cl, Br, I) bond of unactivated
Ph I bond cleavage reaction displays striking apparent zero-
À
À
haloarenes is especially targeted because of their key role in
organic synthesis. Most economically attractive aryl chlorides
order kinetics that we show to arise from a masked autoca-
talysis. We detail a combined experimental and computa-
À
tional mechanistic study of this unconventional Ph X bond
activation, which is expected to be significant for future
progress in the area.
[*] Dr. F. M. Miloserdov, Dr. B. K. MuÇoz, Dr. H. Samouei,
Prof. V. V. Grushin
Adding 1 equiv of styrene to
a
mixture of
Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)
Avgda. Països Catalans 16, 43007 Tarragona (Spain)
E-mail: vgrushin@iciq.es
[(Ph3P)3Ru(H2)(H)2] (1) and PhX (X = I, Br, Cl) in toluene
at room temperature resulted in instantaneous reaction that
produced [(Ph3P)3RuH(X)] (2) and benzene (GC-MS). The
Ru product precipitated out and was isolated in ca. 90%,
90%, and 70–80% yield for X = I (2-I), Br (2-Br), and Cl (2-
Cl), respectively (Scheme 1). The structures of 2-I·CH2Cl2, 2-
Br·2THF, and 2-Cl·C6H6 were confirmed by single-crystal X-
ray diffraction.[9]
Dr. D. McKay, Prof. S. A. Macgregor
Institute of Chemical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh EH14 4AS (UK)
E-mail: s.a.macgregor@hw.ac.uk
[**] We thank Prof. Alan S. Goldman, Prof. Vladimir I. Bakhmutov, Prof.
Juan A. Casares, Prof. Michael K. Whittlesey, and Prof. Sylviane
Sabo-Etienne for helpful discussions, and Dr. Jordi Benet-Buchholz,
Dr. Eduardo C. Escudero-Adµn, Dr. Marta Martínez Belmonte, and
Dr. Eddy Martin for X-ray studies. The ICIQ Foundation and The
Spanish Government (Grant CTQ2011-25418 and the Severo Ochoa
Excellence Accreditation 2014-2018 SEV-2013-0319) are thankfully
acknowledged for support of this work. F.M.M. is grateful to the
Government of Spain (MICINN) for the FPI Ph.D. Scholarship (BES-
2012-054922). S.A.M. and D.M. thank the EPSRC for support
through award EP/J010677/1.
À
Such facile Ph X (X = Cl, Br) bond cleavage with
a simple PPh3-stabilized RuII species is unprecedented. Free
radicals are unlikely to be involved in this transformation, as
no bibenzyl was seen in reactions performed in toluene and
deuterium incorporation into the benzene product was
insignificant (< 4%, GC-MS) with [D8]THF used as solvent.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
ꢀ 2015 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.
KGaA. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Scheme 1. Room-temperature Ph-X activation with 1–styrene.
8466
ꢀ 2015 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 8466 –8470