Michael addition of N-bonded enolato ligands to acrylonitrile in iron and ruthenium complexesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: physical and spectroscopic data for 1a and 1b. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b0/b004099l/

Abstract

Treatment of the N-bonded enolatoiron(II) complex [M(H)(NCCHCO₂R)(L)₂] [1a, M = Fe, R = Me, L = depe {1,2-bis(diethylphosphino)ethane}; 1b, M = Fe, R = Et, L = depe; 2, M = Ru, L = dppe] with acrylonitrile results in mono-Michael addition to give [M(H){NCC(C₂H₄CN)CO₂R}(L)₂ ], which is found to be an active intermediate for the catalytic double-Michael reaction of cyanoacetate with acrylonitrile.