Reactions of Fluoroalkanes with Mg-Mg Bonds: Scope, sp3 C-F/sp2 C-F Coupling and Mechanism.

sp3 C-F Bonds of fluoroalkanes (7 examples; 1°, 2° and 3°) undergo addition to a low-valent Mg-Mg species generating reactive organomagnesium reagents. Further reactions with a series of electrophiles results in a net C-F to C-B, C-Si, C-Sn or C-C bond transformation (11 examples, diversity). The new reactivity has been exploited in an unprecedented one-pot magnesium-mediated coupling of sp3 C-F and sp2 C-F bonds. Calculations suggest that the sp3 C-F bond activation step occurs by frontside nucleophilic attack of the Mg-Mg reagent on the fluoroalkane.

A combined experimental and computational study on the reaction of fluoroarenes with Mg-Mg, Mg-Zn, Mg-Al and Al-Zn bonds.

Through a combined experimental and computational (DFT) approach, the reaction mechanism of the addition of fluoroarenes to Mg-Mg bonds has been determined as a concerted SNAr-like pathway in which one Mg centre acts as a nucleophile and the other an electrophile. The experimentally determined Gibbs activation energy for the addition of C6F6 to a Mg-Mg bond of a molecular complex, ΔG‡298 K(experiment) = 21.3 kcal mol-1 is modelled by DFT with the ωB97X functional, ΔG‡298 K(DFT) = 25.7 kcal mol-1. The transition state for C-F activation involves a polarisation of the Mg-Mg bond and significant negative charge localisation on the fluoroarene moiety. This transition state is augmented by stabilising closed-shell Mg···F ortho interactions that, in combination with the known trends in C-F and C-M bond strengths in fluoroarenes, provide an explanation for the experimentally determined preference for C-F bond activation to occur at sites flanked by ortho-fluorine atoms. The effect of modification of both the ligand coordination sphere and the nature and polarity of the M-M bond (M = Mg, Zn, Al) on C-F activation has been investigated. A series of highly novel ß-diketiminate stabilised complexes containing Zn-Mg, Zn-Zn-Zn, Zn-Al and Mg-Al bonds has been prepared, including the first crystallographic characterisation of a Mg-Al bond. Reactions of these new M-M containing complexes with perfluoroarenes were conducted and modelled by DFT. C-F bond activation is dictated by the steric accessibility, and not the polarity, of the M-M bond. The more open coordination complexes lead to enhanced Mg···F ortho interactions which in turn lower the energy of the transition states for C-F bond activation.

Bypassing a highly unstable frustrated Lewis pair: dihydrogen cleavage by a thermally robust silylium-phosphine adduct.

The thermally robust silylium complex [iPr3Si-PtBu3](+)[B(C6F5)4](-) (1) activates H2/D2 at 90 °C (PhCl); no evidence for dissociation into the separated Lewis pair is found. DFT calculations show H2 cleavage proceeds via Si-P bond elongation to form an encounter complex directly from the adduct, thus avoiding the non-isolable iPr3Si(+)-PtBu3 FLP.