Labile Rhodium(I)–N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes

Autores: Laura Palacios, Andrea Di Giuseppe, Anna Opalinska, Ricardo Castarlenas, Jesús J. Pérez-Torrente, Fernando Lahoz y Luis Oro Ref. revista: Organometallics, 32, 2768-2774 (2013)

The neutral square-planar complexes Rh(acac)(IPr)(η2-olefin) have been prepared from [Rh(μ-Cl)(IPr)(η2-olefin)]2 (IPr = 1,3-bis-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-carbene;olefin = cyclooctene, ethylene) and sodium acetylacetonate (acac). Protonation of the acetylacetonato complexes with triflic acid opens the way to the formation of the putative bare [Rh-IPr]+ fragment that has been stabilized at low temperature by labile ligands such as triflate, cyclooctene, and acetonitrile to generate Rh(OTf)(IPr)(η2-coe), [Rh(IPr)(η2-coe)(NCCH3)2]- OTf, and [Rh(IPr)(NCCH3)3]OTf complexes. The derivative [Rh(IPr)(η2-coe)(NCCH3)2]OTf was further characterized by an X-ray diffraction analysis.