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K. Nemoto et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 57 (2016) 3199–3203
Table 1
Hydrocyanation of 2-norbornene using various Ni(II) precatalysts, solvents, and reductantsa
Entry
Precatalyst
Solvent
Reductant
Ligand
Product yieldb (%)
Substrate remainingb (%)
Selectivityb (%)
1
2
3
4
5
Ni(acac)2ꢀ2H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NMP
NMP
NMP
NMP
NMP
Zn
Zn
Zn
Zn
Zn
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
4
91
61
56
36
73
44
79
55
52
26
31
24
33
7
NiBr2ꢀ3H2O
NiI2ꢀ6H2O
Ni(OAc)2ꢀ4H2O
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
THF
Zn
Zn
Zn
Zn
Zn
Zn
Zn
Zn
Zn
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
3
3
2
48
16
44
1
1
3
87
63
89
34
59
40
96
94
78
23
8
MeOH
Acetonitrile
DMF
18
73
39
73
25
17
14
DMAc
DMSO
CH2Cl2
Toluene
Hexane
15
16
17
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
NiCl2ꢀ6H2O
DMF
DMF
DMF
Mg
Al
Mn
PPh3
PPh3
PPh3
Trace
Trace
21
92
94
60
—
—
53
a
Reaction conditions: 2-norbornene, 16.0 mmol; acetone cyanohydrin; 16.0 mmol, catalyst, 3 mol %; ligand, 6 mol %; reductant, 30 mol %; solvent, 5 mL, under N2
(0.5 MPa), 90 °C, 15 h.
b
Determined by GC-FID analysis.
was poor (entries 9–11). Weakly polar solvents such as CH2Cl2,
toluene, and hexane were not suitable, yields of 1–3% being
obtained (entries 12–14). Subsequently, Mg, Al, and Mn were also
screened as reductants combined with NiCl2ꢀ6H2O, but no improve-
ment in yield was observed (entries 15–17), thus indicating that the
choice of reductant was also important. Adequate generation of the
Ni(0) species is therefore expected to be key in this reaction.
Initially, NiCl2ꢀ6H2O reacts with triphenylphosphine to give
NiCl2(PPh3)2 complexes, which are readily reduced to the Ni(0)
species by Zn via transmetalation. The active species in this reaction
system appears to be the Ni(0)-phosphine complex, as reported by
Miyaura et al.11 As this Ni(0) complex is unstable and short-lived
at room temperature,11b spectroscopic confirmation is
problematic, even at low temperatures. Identification of the Ni(0)
species by NMR spectroscopy was unfortunately not successful.
We hypothesized that the Ni(0) species was stabilized by the
coordination of a 2-norbornene-like Ni(cod)2 complex, and that
hydrocyanation was triggered by this stabilization. We therefore
attempted to synthesize the nickel bis(triphenylphosphine)-bis(2-
norbornene) complex, but all attempts were unsuccessful. Instead
of the desired Ni(0) complex, a norbornene dimer was observed
by mass spectrometry.12 Examination of the literature revealed that
such dimerizations were likely induced by an Ni(0) species
coordinated to two norbornene molecules.13 Indeed, this
dimerization itself confirms our hypothesis, and so we expect that
our hydrocyanation proceeded in a similar manner.
We then carried out ligand screening to improve product yields
and selectivities. According to previous reports, phosphite ligands
tend to be effective in hydrocyanation reactions. Indeed, the
product yield was improved to 86% when triphenylphosphite
was used (Table 2, entry 1). However, as some decomposition to
phenol was observed, the phosphite ligands were unsuitable for
reuse. Similarly, alkyl phosphines such as trimethylphosphine,
tributylphosphine, and tri-tert-butylphosphine were easily decom-
posed, and spontaneously caught fire upon contact with air. These
ligands were therefore excluded as ligand candidates. Other mon-
odentate ligands such as tri(mesityl)phosphine, tri(1-naphthyl)
phosphine, and tri(o-tolyl)phosphine were investigated, with no
reaction being observed (entries 2–4), suggesting that steric
bulkiness affected the Ni(0) species activity. Bidentate ligands with
a wide bite angle were therefore expected to influence the activity
of the Ni(0) species, and so various bisphosphine ligands
were tested in the presence of NiCl2ꢀ6H2O and Zn in DMF
(entries 5–10). The use of bisphosphine ligands drastically
increased both the product yield and selectivity. In particular, the
reaction proceeded smoothly and almost quantitatively when
1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane
(dppp)
was
employed
(entry 7). The reaction solution became a bright red-orange color
when dppp was used, indicating that the NiCl2(dppp) complex
was generated in situ, which supported the above-mentioned
reaction mechanism. Indeed, a stoichiometric quantity of acetone
cyanohydrin was sufficient to achieve almost complete conversion.
Other bidentate ligands, such as N,N,N0,N0-tetramethylethylenedi-
amine and ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, were not beneficial to
the reaction. However, the reaction proceeded moderately when
2,20-bipyridine was used, the product yield was 49%.
Further optimization allowed reduction in the catalyst amount
to 1 mol %, ligand loading to 2 mol % and reductant amount to
10 mol % without any significant decrease in yield for the
hydrocyanation of 2-norbornene (Table 3, entry 1).14 Our catalyst
system was then compared to typical homogeneous catalysts for
the hydrocyanation reaction, but the reaction was not successful
(entries 2–8). The reaction gave only trace amounts of product in
the presence of Ni(CO)2(PPh3)2, Ni(PPh3)4, Ni[P(OPh)3]4, and Pd
(PPh3)4. With the exception of entry 4 (Ni(PPh3)4), adequate
amounts of 2-norbornene remained intact. In these reactions, the
inactivated species were presumably formed through catalyst
poisoning. Indeed, it has been reported that some Ni(0), Pd(0),
and Co(0) catalysts were deactivated through the formation of
cyanide complexes.15 However, our reaction proceeded smoothly,
demonstrating that a distinguished and convenient system had
been developed.
With the optimized conditions in hand, we attempted the
hydrocyanation of a range of aromatic and heterocyclic alkenes
(Table 4). Styrene was converted to their corresponding mononi-
trile mixtures in good yields (entry 1). Moreover, halogenated
styrenes were also converted to their corresponding mononitrile
mixtures in good yields (entries 2–4). It was interesting that
aromatic carbon–bromine bond was not cleaved. Strong
electron-donating group such as –OMe group accelerated the
reaction, to give their corresponding mononitrile mixtures in good
yields (entry 5). Indeed, our catalyst system was not affected by the
coordination effect of the methoxy group. However, the reaction
was disturbed by a strong electron-withdrawing group such as
the -CO2Me group. The conversion was notably decreased to give
corresponding mononitrile mixture only in 19% (entry 6). We also