Cationic iron(II) complexes of the mixed cyclopentadienyl (Cp) and the N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands as effective precatalysts for the hydrosilylation of carbonyl compounds

Dharmendra Kumar, A. P. Prakasham, Linus Paulin Bheeter, Jean Baptiste Sortais, Manoj Gangwar, Thierry Roisnel, Alok Ch Kalita, Christophe Darcel*, Prasenjit Ghosh

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A series of iron(II) complexes of N-heterocyclic carbene ligands was synthesized and fully structurally characterized. Specifically, the benzimidazole based {Cp[1,3-di-R-benzimidazol-2-ylidene]-Fe(CO)2}I [R = Et (1b), i-Pr (2b) and n-Bu (3b)] and the imidazole based {Cp[1-benzyl-3-R-imidazol-2-ylidene]Fe(CO)2}PF6 [R = Me (4b) and Et (5b)] type of complexes were synthesized from their respective benzimidazolium iodide (1-3)a and their imidazolium hexafluorophosphate (4-5)a salts by the reaction with CpFe(CO)2I in the presence of MN(SiMe 3)2 (M = Li or K) as a base. The molecular structures of the (1-5)b complexes reveal that the metal center display a conventional piano stool structure. More importantly, the (1-5)b complexes, when irradiated with visible light, effectively catalyzed the hydrosilylation reaction of carbonyl compounds namely, of the aldehyde and ketone substrates, using organosilane reagents. Specifically, the (1-5)b complexes performed the hydrosilylation of a representative benzaldehyde substrate using phenylsilane in ambient conditions at 30 °C while that of the representative acetophenone substrate at a more elevated temperature of 70°C. The benzimidazole derived complexes (1-3)b displayed superior activity than the imidazole derived (4-5)b complexes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)81-87
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Organometallic Chemistry
Volume762
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Jul 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Benzimidazole
  • Hydrosilylation
  • Imidazole
  • Iron
  • NHC ligands

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