Abstract:The reactions of a diborene with elemental selenium or tellurium are shown to afford a diboraselenirane or diboratellurirane, respectively. These reactions are reminiscent of the sequestration of sub-valent oxygen and nitrogen in the formation of oxiranes and aziridines; however, such reactivity is not known between alkenes and the heavy chalcogens. While carbon is too electronegative to affect the reduction of elements of lower relative electronegativity, the highly reducing nature of the B=B double bond enables reactions with Se 0 and Te 0 . The capacity of multiple bonds between boron to donate electron density is highlighted in reactions where diborynes behave as nucleophiles, attacking one of the two Te atoms of diaryltellurides, forming salts consisting of diboratellurenium cations and aryltelluride anions.The energy stored in small, highly strained cyclic molecules has made them an integral part of modern synthetic chemistry. Since this "strain energy" increases with decreasing ring size, it is greatest for three-membered rings, and when these rings are heterocyclic the charge-asymmetry induced in the molecule provides sites ready for reaction. Accordingly, an enormous amount of research has gone into both the synthetic paths to, and reactions of, members of this class of compounds, most prominently oxiranes (C2O rings) and aziridines (C2N rings). The most common route to these materials is the oxidation of olefins using, in the case of oxirane formation, subvalent oxygen species such as O2, peroxides, peroxyacids, and ozone, or with reagents that impart a degree of electron deficiency to an oxygen atom, such as chlorite or iodosylbenzene. [1] Aziridination of olefins is most frequently accomplished through the in situ generation of nitrenes from azides or other electron deficient nitrogen sources such as iodinanes, hydroxylamines, and hydrazines. [1a,2] These alkene-oxidations are made possible by the relatively high electronegativity of oxygen and nitrogen, (χPauling = 3.44 and 3.04, respectively), relative to carbon (χPauling = 2.55).Thiiranes (C2S rings) are comparatively less common, and though examples of the direct addition of elemental sulfur to alkenyl double bonds are not unknown, [3] their syntheses are more likely than their first row neighbors to involve non-redox routes. [4] The similar electronegativities of carbon and sulfur (χPauling = 2.58) decreases the thermodynamic driving force for alkene oxidation, further exemplified by the noted willingness of thiiranes to thermally extrude atomic sulfur [5] and by their utility as sulfur atom transfer reagents. [6] Three-membered heterocycles featuring heavier chalcogens (Se and Te) are even less prevalent. Though seleniranes have been proposed as reactive intermediates in a handful of transformations, [7] the isolated examples of these compounds are few and none have been crystallographically verified. [8] To date, there are no known examples of telluriranes. The heavy chalcogens have roughly equal (χSe = 2.55) or smaller (χTe = 2.10...
Molecules containing multiple bonds between atoms—most often in the form of olefins—are ubiquitous in nature, commerce, and science, and as such have a huge impact on everyday life. Given their prominence, over the last few decades, frequent attempts have been made to perturb the structure and reactivity of multiply-bound species through bending and twisting. However, only modest success has been achieved in the quest to completely twist double bonds in order to homolytically cleave the associated π bond. Here, we present the isolation of double-bond-containing species based on boron, as well as their fully twisted diradical congeners, by the incorporation of attached groups with different electronic properties. The compounds comprise a structurally authenticated set of diamagnetic multiply-bound and diradical singly-bound congeners of the same class of compound.
A compound with a boron-boron triple bond is shown to undergo stepwise hydroboration reactions with catecholborane to yield an unsymmetrical hydro(boryl)diborene and a 2,3-dihydrotetraborane. Abstraction of Hfrom the latter compound produces an unusual cationic, planar tetraborane with a hydrogen atom bridging the central B2 moiety. Spectroscopic and crystallographic data and DFT calculations support a 'protonated diborene' structure for this compound, which can also be accessed via direct protonation of the corresponding diborene.
An N‐heterocyclic‐carbene‐stabilized diboryne undergoes rapid, high‐yielding and catalyst‐free hydroamination reactions with primary amines, yielding 1‐amino‐2‐hydrodiborenes, which can be considered boron analogues of enamines. The electronics of the organic substituent at nitrogen influence the structure and further reactivity of the diborene product. With electron‐rich anilines, a second hydroamination can occur at the diborene to generate 1,1‐diamino‐2,2‐dihydrodiboranes. With isopropylamine, the electronic influence of the alkyl substituent upon the diborene leads to an unprecedented boron‐mediated intramolecular N‐dearylation reaction of an N‐heterocyclic carbene unit.
The addition of alkynes to a saturated N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-supported diboryne results in spontaneous cycloaddition, with complete BB and CC triple bond cleavage, NHC ring-expansion and activation of a variety of C–H bonds, leading to the formation of complex mixtures of fused B,N-heterocycles.
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