This report describes the catalytic activity of the pincer-type complex {κ P ,κ C ,κ P -2,6-(Ph2PO)2C6H3}Ni(OSO2CF3) (1) in the anti-Markovnikov addition of aliphatic and aromatic amines and alcohols to acrylonitrile, crotonitrile, and methacrylonitrile. The influence of additives on the catalytic activities was investigated, and it was found that substoichiometric quantities of water promoted the C–N bond forming reactions catalyzed by 1, especially the reactions involving aromatic amines; in comparison, NEt3 had a less dramatic impact. The opposite pattern was observed for the alcoholysis of acrylonitrile promoted by 1: water had no beneficial effect on these reactions, while NEt3 proved to be a potent promoter. Another important difference between these reactions is that hydroamination works better with more nucleophilic amines, whereas the alcoholysis reactions work well with ArOH, CF3CH2OH, and ArCH2OH but not at all with the more nucleophilic aliphatic alcohols methanol, ethanol, and 2-propanol. Both hydroamination and alcoholysis proceed much better with acrylonitrile in comparison to its Me-substituted derivatives crotonitrile and methacrylonitrile. Under optimized conditions, precatalyst 1 promotes conjugate additions to acrylonitrile with catalytic turnover numbers of up to 100 (hydroamination) or higher (alcoholysis). Spectroscopic studies have established that the main Ni-containing species in the hydroamination reactions is a cationic adduct in which the olefinic substrate is bound to the Ni center via its nitrile moiety; this binding activates the double bond toward an outer-sphere nucleophilic attack by the amine (Michael addition). The solid-state structures of the cationic nitrile adducts [{κ P ,κ C ,κ P -2,6-(Ph2PO)2C6H3}Ni(NCR)][OSO2CF3] (R = Me (2a), CH2CH2N(H)Ph (2e)), which can be regarded as model complexes for the species involved in the hydroamination catalysis, have been elucidated. Also reported are the solid-state structures of the charge-neutral compound {κ P ,κ C ,κ P -2,6-(i-Pr2PO)2C6H3}Ni(OSO2CF3) and an octahedral Ni(II) species resulting from the aerobic/hydrolytic oxidation of 1.
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