New low-energy pathways for the reaction between substituted boriranes and borirenes with unsaturated hydrocarbons (ethyne or ethene) were discovered using density functional and coupled cluster theory. The interaction between the π bond of the hydrocarbon and the empty p orbital of the boron center leads to ring expansion of the three-membered to a five-membered boron heterocycle. The reactions are strongly exothermic and have low or even no barriers. They involve intermediates with a pentacoordinate boron center with two hydrocarbon molecules coordinating to boron akin to metal-olefin complexes. These borylene complexes are shallow minima on the potential energy surfaces. But significantly higher barriers for ring formation are computed for 1,5-cyclooctadiene and dibenzocyclooctatetraene complexes of borylenes, making these complexes likely detectable under appropriate experimental conditions. Our computational findings have implications for the interpretation of trapping experiments of thermally generated small borylenes with excess of small π systems. Because of very low barriers for reactions of three-membered boron heterocycles with π systems and the at least locally large excess of the latter under such conditions, formation of five-membered boron heterocycles should be considered.
Keywords: boron; computational chemistry; density functional calculations; hydrocarbons; ring expansion.
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