N-Alkylfluorenyl-substituted N-heterocyclic carbenes as bimodal pincers

Abstract

Two N-heterocyclic carbene precursors having their nitrogen atoms substituted by the expanded 9-ethyl-9-fluorenyl group, namely imidazolinium chloride 6 and imidazolium chloride 7, have been synthesized in high yields from fluorenone (1). The key intermediate of their syntheses is the new primary amine 9-ethyl-9-fluorenylamine (3), which was prepared in 75% yield. Both salts were readily converted into the corresponding PEPPSI-type palladium complexes, 8 and 9 (PEPPSI: pyridine-enhanced precatalyst preparation stabilisation and initiation). Despite rotational freedom of the ethylfluorenyl moieties about the N–C(fluorenyl) bond in their cationic precursors, the carbene ligands of the Pd(II)-complexes 8 and 9 both behave as bimodal pincers in solution and in the solid state, the resulting confinement being essentially due to (weak) attractive anagostic interactions between the CH₂(fluorenyl) groups and the metal centre. Unlike in 8 and 9, there was no indication for similar anagostic interactions in the imidazolylidene chlorosilver complex 11, which could be obtained from 7. In the solid state, however, 11 adopts a remarkable “open sandwich” structure, with the two alkylfluorenilidene planes η²-bonded to the silver, this constituting a further bimodal pincer-type bonding mode of this ligand class. Complexes 8 and 9 were assessed in Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. The imidazolylidene complex 9 displayed high activity towards unencumbered aryl chlorides. Its activity is comparable to that of the previously reported, highly efficient benzimidazolylidene analogue 10.