Iron-catalyzed dehydrocoupling/dehydrogenation of amine-boranes

The readily available iron carbonyl complexes, [CpFe(CO)2]2 (1) and CpFe(CO)2I (2) (Cp = η-C5H5), were found to be efficient precatalysts for the dehydrocoupling/dehydrogenation of the amine-borane Me2NH·BH3 (3) to afford the cyclodiborazane [Me2N-BH2]2 (4), upon UV photoirradiation at ambient temperature. In situ analysis of the reaction mixtures by (11)B NMR spectroscopy indicated that different two-step mechanisms operate in each case. Thus, precatalyst 1 dehydrocoupled 3 via the aminoborane Me2N═BH2 (5) which then cyclodimerized to give 4 via an off-metal process. In contrast, the reaction with precatalyst 2 proceeded via Me2NH-BH2-NMe2-BH3 (6) as the key intermediate, affording 4 as the final product after a second metal-mediated step. The related complex Cp2Fe2(CO)3(MeCN) (7), formed by photoirradiation of 1 in MeCN, was found to be a substantially more active dehydrocoupling catalyst and not to require photoactivation, but otherwise operated via a two-step mechanism analogous to that for 1. Significantly, detailed mechanistic studies indicated that the active catalyst generated from precatalyst 7 was heterogeneous in nature and consisted of small iron nanoparticles (≤10 nm). Although more difficult to study, a similar process is highly likely to operate for precatalyst 1 under photoirradiation conditions. In contrast to the cases of 7 and 1, analogous experimental studies for the case of photoactivated Fe precatalyst 2 suggested that the active catalyst formed in this case was homogeneous. Experimental and computational DFT studies were used to explore the catalytic cycle which appears to involve amine-borane ligated [CpFe(CO)](+) as a key intermediate.