Synthesis and characterization of bi(metallacycloprop-1-ene) complexes

Wei Bai; Long Yiu Tsang; Yilun Wang; Yang Li; Herman H Y Sung; Ian D Williams; Guochen Jia

doi:10.1039/d2sc05378k

Synthesis and characterization of bi(metallacycloprop-1-ene) complexes

Chem Sci. 2022 Nov 16;14(1):96-102. doi: 10.1039/d2sc05378k. eCollection 2022 Dec 21.

Authors

Wei Bai^{1

2}, Long Yiu Tsang¹, Yilun Wang^{2

3}, Yang Li^{2

3}, Herman H Y Sung¹, Ian D Williams¹, Guochen Jia¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clear Water Bay Kowloon Hong Kong P. R. China chjiag@ust.hk chwill@ust.hk.
² State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Department of Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology Liaoning 116024 P. R. China chyangli@dlut.edu.cn.
³ School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology Panjin Liaoning 124221 P. R. China.

Abstract

In all previously reported metallacycloprop-1-ene or η²-vinyl complexes, the metal center bears only one vinyl moiety. We have now successfully synthesized and structurally characterized the first complexes bearing two η²-vinyl moieties or spiro bi(metallacycloprop-1-ene) complexes from reactions of alkynes with rhenium phosphine complexes. Computational studies indicate that the metallacycloprop-1-ene rings are aromatic and the complexes represent a rare σ-type spirometalla-aromatic system.