Group 6 transition-metal/boron frustrated Lewis pair templates activate N2 and allow its facile borylation and silylation

Antoine Simonneau (1) , Raphaël Turrel (1) , Laure Vendier (1) , Michel Etienne (1)

1 LCC - Laboratoire de chimie de coordination

The reaction of trans‐[M(N2)2(dppe)2] (M=Mo, 1Mo, M=W, 1W) with B(C6F5)3 (2) provides the adducts [(dppe)2M=N=N‐B(C6F5)3] (3) which can be regarded as M/B transition‐metal frustrated Lewis pair (TMFLP) templates activating dinitrogen. Easy borylation and silylation of the activated dinitrogen ligands in complexes 3 with a hydroborane and hydrosilane occur by splitting of the B−H and Si−H bonds between the N2 moiety and the perfluoroaryl borane. This reactivity of 3 is reminiscent of conventional frustrated Lewis pair chemistry and constitutes an unprecedented approach for the functionalization of dinitrogen.

Domaines: Chimie de coordination

Antoine Simonneau, Raphaël Turrel, Laure Vendier, Michel Etienne. Group 6 transition-metal/boron frustrated Lewis pair templates activate N2 and allow its facile borylation and silylation. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2017, 56 (40), pp.12268-12272. ⟨10.1002/anie.201706226⟩. ⟨hal-01939580⟩