Regime Switch in the Dual-Catalyzed Coupling of Alkyl Silicates with Aryl Bromides

Chemistry. 2023 Oct 23;29(59):e202301780. doi: 10.1002/chem.202301780. Epub 2023 Sep 18.

Abstract

Metallaphotoredox catalyzed cross-coupling of an arylbromide (Ar-Br) with an alkyl bis(catecholato)silicate (R-Si ) has been analyzed in depth using a continuum of analytical techniques (EPR, fluorine NMR, electrochemistry, photophysics) and modeling (micro-kinetics and DFT calculations). These studies converged on the impact of four control parameters consisting in the initial concentrations of the iridium photocatalyst ([Ir]0 ), nickel precatalyst ([Ni]0 ) and silicate ([R-Si ]0 ) as well as light intensity I0 for an efficient reaction between Ar-Br and R-Si . More precisely, two regimes were found to be possibly at play. The first one relies on an equimolar consumption of Ar-Br with R-Si smoothly leading to Ar-R, with no side-product from R-Si and a second one in which R-Si is simultaneously coupled to Ar-Br and degraded to R-H. This integrative approach could serve as a case study for the investigation of other metallaphotoredox catalysis manifolds of synthetic significance.

Keywords: dual catalysis; mechanistic study; micro-kinetic modeling; nickel; photocatalysis.