The element nitrogen is essential to life. Considerable attention is thus paid to the development of synthetic methods for its introduction into molecules. Nitrenes, long regarded as highly reactive but poorly selective species, have recently emerged as useful tools for the formation of C-N bonds. Practical metal-catalyzed protocols are now available for the preparation of amines through either the aziridination of alkenes or the C-H amination of alkanes. Recent results highlighted in this Minireview suggest that synthetic nitrene chemistry is maturing with a wider scope not limited to these two reactions.
The Rh(II) -catalyzed oxyamination and diamination of alkenes generate 1,2-amino alcohols and 1,2-diamines, respectively, in good to excellent yields and with complete regiocontrol. In the case of diamination, the intramolecular reaction provides an efficient method for the preparation of pyrrolidines, and the intermolecular reaction produces vicinal amines with orthogonal protecting groups. These alkene difunctionalizations proceed by aziridination followed by nucleophilic ring opening induced by an Rh-bound nitrene generated in situ, details of which were uncovered by both experimental and theoretical studies. In particular, DFT calculations show that the nitrogen atom of the putative [Rh]2 =NR metallanitrene intermediate is electrophilic and support an aziridine activation pathway by N⋅⋅⋅N=[Rh]2 bond formation, in addition to the N⋅⋅⋅[Rh]2 =NR coordination mode.
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