J.M.E. Matos, B.S. Lima-Neto / Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical 259 (2006) 286–291
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catalysis occurs with the amine–phosphine complexes since all
the reactions were performed after the necessary times for the
formation of the complexes, as accompanied by 1H NMR (see
Section 2). The in situ formation of highly active mononuclear
ruthenium complexes was also observed with [RuCl2(PPh3)3]
or [RuCl2(PPh3)2(triazol-5-ylidene)] in the presence of amine
ligands when catalysis experiments were conducted for living
radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate [42,43].
differ from that result with 4-H2NC(O)-py (17) that produces
polymer with low Mw/Mn for 120 min. Besides, the case with
imidazole shows monomodal weight distribution with a high
Mw/Mn value. Thus, it can be concluded that the large disper-
sion in the molecular weight is due to the electronic effects that
generate complexes affording different initiation and propaga-
tion ROMP processes, since these type of ligands show similar
and small cone angles.
The catalytic activities at RT characterize fast initiation reac-
tions in the cases with NEt3 (8), NHPh2 (6) and NH2 Bu
The simple fact that the results are different from each other
and from that obtained with L = PPh3 suggests that the interme-
diate complexes are bonded to the respective amines and shows
that these amines are capable of acting as ancillary ligands. The
presence of the amines avoids forming binuclear complexes in
solution, which is the behavior of the parent [RuCl2(PPh3)3]
complex, as previously discussed in the case with piperidine
[34]. Therefore, the high activity of the catalysts is attributed to
the retention of the mononuclear character.
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(13), increasing the number of Ru species able to promote the
indexes. However, although the Mn values are in the same order
of magnitude, the Mw/Mn values are relatively high, suggest-
ing that a chain transfer occurred during the polymerization
[44].
In general, the complexes with acyclic amines show bet-
ter yields than those with cyclic amines, except in the case
of 4-H2NC(O)-py, which showed quantitative reaction at 50 ◦C
for 5 min (16). Piperidine can be observed as a type of hybrid
between acyclic and saturated cyclic ligands, which resembles
NHEt2 (pKa 10.9; θ = 125◦), providing very good results when
the run is carried out at RT (19, 20).
Acyclic amines with very low -donor and large θ (such as
NHPh2) can afford good metal complex reactivity, as well as
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good -donor with large θ amines (such as piperidine, NH2 Bu
and NEt3). These ligands provide high reactivity at RT, there-
fore one can conclude that the steric hindrance is really a very
important factor independently of the -donor character of the
ligand.
Observing all the cases, the high cone angle values seem to
be the main beneficial effect since the largest amines afforded
complexes to react under the lowest temperature for less reaction
time.
Good catalytic behaviors could be expected from the com-
plexes with NH(EtOH)2 and N(EtOH)3 (3, 4), since they are
-donors and the cone angles are probable ∼125◦ and ∼150◦,
which are the values of the ligands NHEt2 and NEt3 [36], respec-
tively. However, these results can be attributed to the presence
of the OH group in the ligands. Such group which can coor-
dinate to the metal center competing with either the formation
of the carbene active species or the incoming olefin substrate
ligand. A poisoning of the active species by the OH group
was observed when complexes [RuCl2(PPh3)2(piperidine)] and
[RuCl2(PPh3)2(imidazole)2] were in the presence of 2-propanol
used as additive [41]. A similar case could explain the behavior
of the [RuHCl(CO)(PiPr3)2] complex, which is ∼4 times more
of 2-propanol [45].
The cyclic amines present small cone angles (<100◦) and
seem to act as a function of the electronic balance in the
Ru center. The strongest -donor amines poison the catalyst
as they strongly bind the metal center throughout a phos-
phine ← Ru ← amine synergism effect, providing inert starting
complexes. This is the case with imidazole (2) and 4-H2N-py
(5), which showed similar results for 120 min. A moderate -
donor with a possibility to make some degree of amine ← Ru(II)
-back-bonding, such as pyridine (7) and 4-H3C-py (9), can
afford more polymer as a function of time when the yields
increased for 120 min, where there exists a -electron compe-
tition between PPh3 and amine molecules. Thus, the different
results among these cyclic amines can be attributed to the dis-
sociation of the ligands, which are difficult to occur in the
cases with imidazole (2) and 4-H2N-py (5). It can be ratio-
nalized that -acceptors improve the yields since -electron
competition will tune the dissociation of ligands to generate
complexes with lower coordination numbers. This is the case
with the weak -donor and moderate -acceptor 4-H2NC(O)-py
(16), which produces quite quantitative polynorbornene under
typical conditions. Thus, decreasing the -donor character and
increasing the -acceptor ability of the ligands, the complexes
become more effective and the following order can be written
characterizing different latent complexes: imidazole < 4-H2N-
py ꢀ pyridine ∼ 4-H3C-py ꢀ 4-H2NC(O)-py. This order is also
an ancillary ligand order considering that the yields, molecular
weights and polydispersity indexes are, in general, different;
that is, the results suggest that the propagating species are elec-
tronically different. For example, the cases with pyridine and
4-H3C-py show similar results for 120 min (11, 12), but they
Similarly what occurs with the complex with piperidine [34],
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the activity of the complex with NH2 Bu was sensitive to the
amount of the monomer in the medium (Fig. 1). When a fresh
feed of monomer was added to the reaction mixture up to a
point where nearly all monomer of the previous batch had
been consumed (5 min), the values of the Mn increased up to
5000. After 25 min (five batches), the isolated polymer presented
monomodal weight distribution with low polydispersity index
shows living nature in the catalytic process.
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The complex with NH2 Bu showed activity for ROMP
of 2,5-norbornadiene with yield of 80% at 50 ◦C for 5 min
(Table 2). This result is much better than those obtained with
[RuCl2(PPh3)3] and complex with piperidine, where both are
five-coordinated. Unfortunately, the obtained polynorbornadi-
ene was insoluble in CHCl3 and was not characterized at this
time.