Development of a new catalyst for the distannation of alkynes

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.200390102

An added bonus in the optimization of a catalyst for the hydrostannation with tin hydrides was the discovery that molybdenum isonitrile complexes are also suitable for distannations. Further developments in this respect led to a new tungsten isonitrile complex, which catalyzed this reaction highly efficiently and selectively (see scheme, THP = tetrahydropyranyl).

Full text of DOI:10.1002/anie.200390102

Communications
Tungsten-Catalyzed Distannation
Development of a New Catalyst for the
Distannation of Alkynes**
Sascha Braune and Uli Kazmaier*
Scheme 1. Mono- and distannation of 1. THP¼tetrahydropyranyl.
Vinylstannanes have become important building blocks in
natural product chemistry as a result of the diverse range of
palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions they undergo
with halides, acid chlorides, or triflates.[1] The broad applic-
ability and high tolerance against functional groups has
stimulated a keen interest in synthesizing these organotin
derivatives. The most direct route to these compounds is by
(1; Scheme 1). This side product was also obtained in the
hydrostannation of propargylic compouds with the other
catalysts, but always in less than 5%.This result was initially
surprising for us, and we assumed that based on the lower
reactivity of the phenyl isocyanide complex (B), the decom-
position of the tin hydride by elimination of H2 and the
formation of the distannane competes with the hydrostanna-
tion. This would explain the formation of the distannylated
product as a metal-catalyzed addition of an in situ prepared
ꢀ
hydrostannation, namely the addition of tin hydrides to C C
bonds. Besides this route, only a small number of approaches
exist to introduce two functionalities simultaneously. One is
the nickel-catalyzed carbostannation of terminal alkynes, in
which a tributyltin and an allylic fragment are introduced
simultaneously.[3] Other possibilities are the palladium-cata-
lyzed addition of a silyl and a stannyl group (silastannation) to
an alkyne or[4] distannation, mainly developed by Mitchell
et al.[5] Best results have been obtained in the palladium-
catalyzed distannation of alkynes by using hexamethyldistan-
nane, a compound that is not unproblematic to handle in
terms of its toxicity. Chemoselective transformations of both
tin fragments are possible, underlining the synthetic use of
these distannylated (Z)-olefins in organic chemistry.[6] The
distannation of nonterminal acetylenic esters to (Z)-bis(tri-
methyltin)alk-2-enoates was achieved by Piers et al. in high
yields.[7] Herein we report that distannylated (Z)-olefins can
not only be obtained by palladium-catalyzed reactions but
also by using isonitrile transition-metal complexes of Group 6
in combination with tributyltin hydride.
Our group has been studying the regioselective hydro-
stannation of alkynes with [Mo(CO)3(CNtBu)3] (A) for
several years.[8] This catalyst is very stable and reliable, and
gives high selectivity for the sterically more hindered a-
stannylated product. Since this catalyst does not work as well
in hydrostannations of propargylic ethers as it does in the
corresponding reactions with propargylic esters or alcohols,
we tried to optimize the catalyst by varying the isonitrile
ligands. Starting from [Mo(CO)6] and the corresponding
isonitrile[9] we prepared several catalysts by ligand exchange,
for example, [Mo(CO)3(CNPh)3] (B).[10] This complex shows
a slower conversion rate and a poor ratio of a- to b-products
as well as a surprising side product: 19% (relative to the
whole conversion) of the distannylated product 3 in the
™hydrostannation∫ of the tetrahydropyranylpropargylic ether
ꢀ
distannane to a C Cbond. Decompositions of this type are
well known for palladium-catalyzed reactions,[11] and palla-
dium complexes also catalyze the addition of distannanes to
alkynes.[5] Only recently Lautens et al. reported an analogous
side product in a palladium-catalyzed hydrostannation.[4e] To
verify our mechanistic hypothesis we tried to react hexabu-
tyldistannane with 1 in the presence of our molybdenum
catalysts, but in no case were we able to isolate any
stannylated product. Evidently, a ™free∫ distannane is not
the reagent responsible for the addition, but the ™decom-
position∫ must take place in the coordination sphere of the
metal, probably in the presence of coordinated alkyne.
It is known that tungsten and molybdenum form stable
complexes with trialkyltin compounds.[12] Bel©skii et al. were
able to crystallize complexes of the type Mo-HSnBu3 and
characterize them by X-ray crystallography in 1986.[13] Brown
et al. showed that [HMo(CO)3Cp] and HSnBu3 react to form
a complex of the type [Bu3SnMo(CO)3Cp] under reductive
elimination of hydrogen.[14] In 1991 Schubert et al. observed
that [MesCr(CO)3] forms a stable complex with triphenyltin
hydride after dissociation of one carbonyl ligand. This
complex contains a three-centered hydrogen bond Cr-H-
Sn.[15] They were also able to detect the appearance of
complexes like [(CO)4(Ph3P)W(H)SnPh3] by spectroscopy,
but unfortunately because of the lability of the tungsten
complexes they were not able to crystallize them. However,
they observed that with an excess of tin hydride, hydrogen is
eliminated and the corresponding distannylated complex
[(CO)4(Ph3P)W(SnPh3)2] is obtained.
Thus, it wasn©t as surprising as initially throught that we
obtained the distannylated product. The next question was,
how can we alter the ratio of distannation to hydrostannation.
Clearly, the electron-donating tert-butyl group of A favors the
hydrostannation, whereas the rather electron-withdrawing
phenyl ring in the phenyl isocyanide complex B favors the
decomposition of the tin hydride. Therefore, we explored the
effects of further electron-withdrawing groups at the phenyl
ring on the product ratio (see Scheme 1) and synthesized
™electron-poor∫ isonitriles[16] and the corresponding molyb-
denum and tungsten isonitrile complexes C G.[9,17]
[*] Prof. Dr. U. Kazmaier, Dipl.-Chem. S. Braune
Universit‰t des Saarlandes
Institut f¸r Organische Chemie
Im Stadtwald, Geb. 23.2, 66123 Saarbr¸cken (Germany)
Fax: (þ49)681-302-2409
E-mail: u.kazmaier@mx.uni-saarland.de
First we examined the molybdenum complexes C E and
confirmed that electron-withdrawing groups in the isonitrile
[**] This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(SFB 247 and Ka880/5) and by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie.
306
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Angewandte
Chemie
Table 2: Distannation of alkynes with the tungsten isonitrile complex G.
Yield [%]
distannation a-stanna-
tion
Substrate
b-stanna-
tion
62
76
3
3
0
1
Table 1: Mono- and distannation of 1.
Yield [%]
42
87
73
32
0
1
1
2
0
1
0
1
Catalyst
a-2
b-2
3
A
B
C
D
E
94
42
14
21
2
1
18
2
2
1
3
14
29
40
44
77
93
F
5
4
1
G
1
part of the complex discriminate the hydrostannation (Table 1).
Surprisingly we found the best selectivity with the monoisoni-
trile complex E, which yields nearly exclusively the distanny-
lated product. But we were not able to improve the yield above
50% even by careful optimization of the reaction parameters.
We hoped to achieve a further improvement by using the
corresponding tungsten-based catalyst, since tungsten be-
cause of its larger atomic volume should be more willing to
bind two sterically demanding fragments like the tributyltin
groups.[15] Indeed the tungsten complexes show a higher
reactivity than the corresponding molybdenum complexes,
and the monoisonitrile complex G proved to be the best
catalyst: the cis-distannylated products are obtained almost
exclusively in near quantitative yields. Even though only 0.5
0.6 mol% of catalyst were used in all the reactions, the
conversion was complete after 5 h at the most.
Experimental Section
Synthesis of the catalyst G: p-Nitrophenyl isocyanide (790 mg,
5.33 mmol) dissolved in absolute toluene (10 mL) was added slowly
to a suspension of CoCl2¥2H2O (400 mg, 2.41 mmol) and [W(CO)6]
(605 mg, 1.72 mmol) in absolute toluene (10 mL) at 1008C . The
mixture was refluxed for 7 h before the resulting black suspension was
evaporated in vacuo. The residue obtained was purified by flash
chromatography over silica using CH2Cl2/hexane (1/1) as eluent.
Yield: 189 mg (0.40 mmol, 23%) of a yellow solid.
1
3
ꢁ
H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3): d¼ 7.55 (d, J¼ 9.1 Hz; (CH)C NC),
8.32 ppm (d, J¼9.1 Hz; (CH)C NO2); 13C NMR (75 MHz, CDCl3):
3
ꢁ
ꢁ
ꢁ
ꢁ
d¼ 125.9 (d; (CH)C NO2), 128.0 (d; (CH)C NC), 141.8 (s; C NC),
ꢁ
147.7 (s; C NO2), 194.1 (s; cis-CO), 195.7 ppm (s; trans-CO), (isoni-
Furthermore we were able to show the general use of
catalyst G in the selective distannation of functionalized
terminal alkynes (Table 2). In nearly all cases the ratio of
distannation/hydrostannation was better than 20/1. This was
valid for ethers (4) as well as for amides (5). In the case of 6 we
found only distannylated product, though the yield decreased.
This example demonstrated that even substituted alkynes can
be distannylated selectively. We obtained very good yields
and excellent selectivities in the case of propargylic esters (7,
8). Steric hindrance has, however, a strong influence espe-
cially on the yields as a comparison of 8 and 9 shows. Simple
alkynes are less suitable as substrates for our catalyst systems;
for example, in the reaction of 1-decyne, only negligible
amounts of distannylated product were obtained, and without
significant selectivity.
trile-Cnot detected); IR (KBr): n˜ ¼ 2135 (s), 2049 (s), 1972, 1925 (vs),
1524 (m), 1344 cmꢁ1 (s); FABþ-HRMS [m/z, (%)]: C12H4N2O7186W:
calcd: 473.9562, found: 473.9548 (50.3); C12H4N2O7184W: calcd :
471.9528, found: 471.9497 (56.1); C12H4N2O7183W: calcd: 473.9521,
found: 470.9500 (35.7); C12H4N2O7182W: calcd: 469.9501, found:
469.9464 (48.0); elemental analysis (%): calcd: C30.15, H 2.11, N
5.86; found: C30.17, H 1.42, N 5.64.
General procedure for the distannation: The alkyne (1 mmol),
catalyst G (3 mg, 0.6 mol%) and a point of a spatula of hydroquinone
were dissolved in absolute toluene (2 mL) and heated for 15 min at
608C. After addition of tributyltin hydride (1 mL, 3.8 mmol), heating
was continued for 12 h at 608C. After removal of the solvent the crude
product was chromatographed over silica gel. First hexabutyldistan-
nane and tributyltin hydride were eluted with pure hexane, then the
product was isolated by using hexane/ethyl acetate/1% triethylamine
(98 90% hexane).
In conclusion, we could show that the tungsten isonitrile
complex G is a highly efficient and selective catalyst for
distannations of alkynes, in which tributyltin hydride can be
used as the tin source. Mechanistic studies on this exceptional
reaction are in progress.
Received: August 15, 2002 [Z19974]
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[17] In contrast to the electron-rich isonitriles which provide mainly
the tris(isonitrile) complexes under the conditions described in
reference [9], with electron-poor isonitriles under the same
conditions the mono- and disubstituted complexes are obtained,
which can be separated by flash chromatography.
[*] Prof. A. F¸rstner, Dipl.-Ing. A. Leitner
Max-Planck-Institut f¸r Kohlenforschung
45470 M¸lheim an der Ruhr (Germany)
Fax: (þ49)208-306-2994
E-mail: fuerstner@mpi-muelheim.mpg.de
[**] This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(Leibniz program) and the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie.
308
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