Electrophilic Hydrosilylation of Electron-Rich Alkenes Derived from Enamines

The low-electron count, air-stable, platinum complexes [Pt(I^tBu')(I^tBu)][BAr^F] (C1) (I^tBu=1,3-di-tert-butylimidazol-2-ylidene), [Pt(SiPh)₃(I^tBuⁱPr)₂][BAr^F] (C2) (I^tBuⁱPr=1-tert-butyl-3-iso-propylimidazol-2-ylidene), [Pt(SiPh)₃(I^tBuMe)₂][BAr^F] (C3), [Pt(GePh₃)(I^tBuⁱPr)₂][BAr^F] (C4), [Pt(GePh)₃(I^tBuMe)₂][BAr^F] (C5) and [Pt(GeEt)₃(I^tBuMe)₂][BAr^F] (C6) (I^tBuMe=1-tert-butyl-3-methylimidazol-2-ylidene) are efficient catalysts (particularly the germyl derivatives) in both the silylative dehydrocoupling and hydrosilylation of electron rich alkenes derived from enamines. The steric hindrance exerted by the NHC ligand plays an important role in the selectivity of the reaction. Thus, bulky ligands are selective towards the silylative dehydrocoupling process whereas less sterically hindered promote the selective hydrosilylation reaction. The latter is, in addition, regioselective towards the β-carbon atom of both internal and terminal enamines, leading to β-aminosilanes. Moreover, the syn stereochemistry of the amino and silyl groups implies an anti Si-H bond addition across the double bond. All these facts point to a mechanistic picture that, according to experimental and computational studies, involves a non-classical hydrosilylation process through an outer-sphere mechanism in which a formal nucleophilic addition of the enamine to the silicon atom of a platinum σ-SiH complex is the key step. This is in sharp contrast with the classical Chalk-Harrod mechanism prevalent in platinum chemistry.