Potassium Aluminyl Promoted Carbonylation of Ethene

Abstract

The potassium aluminyl [K{Al(NON Dipp )}] 2 ([NON Dipp ] 2À = [O{SiMe 2 NDipp} 2 ] 2À , Dipp = 2,6-iPr 2 C 6 H 3 ) activates ethene towards carbonylation with CO under mild conditions. An isolated bis-aluminacyclopropane compound reacted with CO via carbonylation of an AlÀ C bond, followed by an intramolecular hydrogen shift to form KRestricting the chemistry to a mono-aluminium system allowed isolation of [Al-anion. DFT calculations highlight the stabilising influence of incorporated benzene at multiple steps in the reaction pathways.