Circumventing redox chemistry: synthesis of transition metal boryl complexes from a boryl nucleophile by decarbonylation

The very strong reducing capabilities of the boryllithium nucleophile (THF)2Li{B(NDippCH)2} (1, Dipp = 2,6-iPr2C6H3) render impractical its use for the direct introduction of the {B(NDippCH)2} ligand via metathesis chemistry into the immediate coordination sphere of transition metals (d(n), with n ≠ 0 or 10). Instead, 1 typically reacts with metal halide, amide and hydrocarbyl electrophiles either via electron transfer or halide abstraction. Evidence for the formation of M-B bonds is obtained only in the case of the d(5) system [{(HCDippN)2B}Mn(THF)(μ-Br)]2. Lower oxidation state metal carbonyl complexes such as Fe(CO)5 and Cr(CO)6 react with 1 via nucleophilic attack at the carbonyl carbon atom to give boryl-functionalized Fischer carbene complexes Fe(CO)4{C(OLi(THF)3)B(NDippCH)2} and Cr(CO)5{C(OLi(THF)2)B(NDippCH)2}. Although C-to-M boryl transfer does not occur for these formally anionic systems, more labile charge neutral bora-acyl derivatives of the type LnM{C(O)B(NDippCH)2} [LnM = Mn(CO)5, Re(CO)5, CpFe(CO)2] can be synthesized, which cleanly lose CO to generate M-B bonds. From a mechanistic standpoint, an archetypal organometallic mode of reactivity, carbonyl extrusion, has thus been shown to be applicable to the boryl ligand class, with (13)C isotopic labeling studies confirming a dissociation/migration pathway. These proof-of-methodology synthetic studies can be extended beyond boryl complexes of the group 7 and 8 metals (for which a number of versatile synthetic routes already exist) to provide access to complexes of cobalt, which have hitherto proven only sporadically accessible.