Mechanism of the Palladium-Catalyzed Metal-Carbon Bond Formation. A Dual Pathway for the Transmetalation Step

The mechanism of the transmetalation step in the metal-carbon bond formation process catalyzed by palladium complexes has been studied by spectroscopic and kinetic methods. The reaction of properly designed model complexes [5-(1-Ph2P-2,4-Ph2)C5H2](CO)3MoPd(PR3)I (3, R = Ph; 15, R = Bu; 16, R = Me), resulting from oxidative addition of a Mo-I moiety to a palladium center, with aryltributyltinacetylides Bu3Sn-CC-(p-XC6H4) (11a, X = H; 11b, X = Cl) yields the products of transmetalation [5-(1-Ph2P-2,4-Ph2)C5H2](CO)3MoPd(PR3)-CC-(p-XC6H4) (5a,b). The reaction, which shows a strong dependence on the nature of the phosphine ligand PR3 (Ph>Bu>Me) and less so on the nature of the p-substituent X group, proceeds through two competing pathways, depending on the initial concentration of substrate. At high [3] (10-2 M), the transmetalation proceeds through an intermediate species (12) formed by interaction of complex 3 with 11a. This associative complex accumulates in the presence of added PPh3 and has been characterized spectroscopically. At low [3] (10-4 M), the reaction rate shows an inverse dependence on the concentration of the complex. This is due to the formation of a solvent-coordinate species (13), in which PPh3 has been substituted by a dimethylformamide (DMF) molecule, as shown by UV-vis and 31P NMR spectroscopy. Values of kobs depend on the concentration and nature of the aryltributyltinacetylides, in agreement with the existence of a kinetically detectable intermediate. A dimeric iodide bridged complex [5-(1-Ph2P-2,4-Ph2)C5H2(CO)3MoPdI]2 (14) has been obtained during attempts at isolating 13, which changes quantitatively into 13 upon dissolution in DMF and reacts with 11a to give the trasmetallation product.