| Summary: | The discovery of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) has dramatically affected the world of catalysis. Their inherent properties that make them excellent auxiliary ligands for catalytic processes have countless laboratories worldwide probing and exploiting every notable feature they possess. However, while there is no shortage of attention in this field of research, there has been considerably less interest in NHCs with an ability chelate to metals via a mixed-donor ligand architecture. Thus, this thesis describes the synthesis and application of a ligand set comprised of bidentate mixed-donor NHC ligands.
The ligands prepared all contain a mesitylimidazol-2-ylidene core unit, but incorporate different donor-functionalized tethers. These mixed-donor NHC ligands are synthesized by using a strong base, such as KN(SiMe₃)₂, to deprotonate the imidazolium salt precursors. This strategy was used to effectively prepare 1-mesityl-3-(2-(mesitylamino)ethyl)imidazol-2-ylidene, Mes[CNH] and 1-mesityl-3-(2-aminoethyl)imidazol-2-ylidene, Mes[CNH₂].
Mes[CNH] was found to be a convenient proligand for the synthesis of various M-NHC (M = Rh, Ir, Ru, Pd, Ni, Fe, Ag, Li) compounds. These Mes[CNH]-M complexes demonstrated the hemilabile character of the Mes[CNH] ligand forming complexes that incorporated either a coordinated or uncoordinated amino tether. Mes[CNH]M(diene)Cl, Mes[CN]M(diene) and [Mes[CNH]M(diene)]BF₄(M = Rh, Ir; diene = 1,5-cyclooctadiene, 2,5-norbornadiene) were synthesized and investigated for their ability to perform hydrogenation and hydrosilylation reactions with various substrates.
Mes[CNH]Ru(=CHPh)(PCy₃)Cl₂, Mes[CNH]Ru(=CHPh)(py)Cl₂ (py = pyridine) and Mes[CNH]Ru(=CHPh)(PMe₃)Cl₂ were also synthesized and fully characterized. The activity of the former two Ru complexes was studied for their ability to catalyze ring-closing metathesis (RCM) and ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) reactions. In addition, the phosphine dissociation rate of Mes[CNH]Ru(=CHPh)(PCy₃)Cl₂ was measured via magnetization transfer experiments and compared to other known Ru-benzylidene analogues.
In addition to the amino-tethered NHC proligands, a phosphine analogue Mes[CP] was prepared and its reactivity with late transition metal complexes was investigated. While the free NHC-phosphine species could not be isolated, deprotonation of both the iminium and phosphine protons followed by the addition of [M(COD)Cl]₂ (M = Rh, Ir) yields Mes[CP]M(COD), which incorporates a bidentate NHC-phosphide ligand. Mes[CP]Ir(COD) was then investigated for its ability to perform hydrogenation and benchmarked to its Mes[CN]Ir(COD) analogue. === Science, Faculty of === Chemistry, Department of === Graduate
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