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Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Versatile CO2 Transformations into Complex Products: A One-pot Two-step Strategy
Published on: November 9, 2019
Reductive coupling of carbon monoxide in a rhenium carbonyl complex with pendant Lewis acids
Alexander J M Miller1, Jay A Labinger, John E Bercaw
1Arnold and Mabel Beckman Laboratories of Chemical Synthesis, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
Abstract:
Phosphinoborane ligands impart unique reactivity to a rhenium carbonyl cation relative to simple phosphine complexes. Addition of either triethylborohydride or a platinum hydride (that can be formed from H2) forms a rhenium boroxycarbene. This carbene, which crystallizes as a dimer, disproportionates over a period of days to afford the starting cation and a structurally unprecedented boroxy(boroxymethyl)carbene, in which a new C-C bond has been formed between two reduced CO ligands. This product of C-C bond formation can be independently synthesized by addition of 2 equiv of hydride to the rhenium carbonyl cation.
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