N-Heterocyclic carbene, carbodiphosphorane and diphosphine adducts of beryllium dihalides: synthesis, characterisation and reduction studies

Albert Paparo; Aidan J R Matthews; Cory D Smith; Alison J Edwards; K Yuvaraj; Cameron Jones

doi:10.1039/d1dt01393a

N-Heterocyclic carbene, carbodiphosphorane and diphosphine adducts of beryllium dihalides: synthesis, characterisation and reduction studies

Dalton Trans. 2021 Jun 8;50(22):7604-7609. doi: 10.1039/d1dt01393a.

Authors

Albert Paparo¹, Aidan J R Matthews¹, Cory D Smith¹, Alison J Edwards², K Yuvaraj¹, Cameron Jones¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry, PO Box 23, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia. cameron.jones@monash.edu.
² Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Locked Bag 2001, Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia.

PMID: 33988210
DOI: 10.1039/d1dt01393a

Abstract

Reaction of several N-heterocyclic carbenes, a carbodiphosphorane, and bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (DPPE) with [BeX2(OEt2)2] (X = Br or I) have yielded a variety of beryllium dihalide adduct complexes, all of which were crystallographically characterised. Attempts to reduce the compounds to low oxidation state beryllium complexes using a variety of reducing agents have been carried out, but were of limited success. However, reaction of [(IPr)BeBr2] (IPr = :C{(DipNCH)2}; Dip = 2,6-diisopropylphenyl) with the aluminium(i) heterocycle, [:Al(DipNacnac)] (DipNacnac = [HC(MeCNDip)2]-) afforded the adduct complex, [{(IPr)(Br)Be(μ-H)}2], while reduction of [(IPr)BeBr2] with potassium naphthalenide gave the beryllium naphthalenediyl complex, [(IPr)Be(C10H8)]. Furthermore, reaction of [{(DPPE)BeI2}∞], with [:Al(DipNacnac)] led to insertion of the Al centre of the heterocycle into a Be-I bond, and formation of a rare example of an Al-Be bonded complex, [(DPPE)(i)Be-Al(i)(DipNacnac)].