Germanium(II) hydrides, also called germylene hydrides, are a class of Group 14 compounds consisting of low-valent germanium and a terminal hydride. They are also typically stabilized by an electron donor-acceptor interaction between the germanium atom and a large, bulky ligand. [1]
The first stable monomeric germylene hydride was reported by Roesky et al. in 2001. [2] Initial attempts to synthesize the compound involved treating a β-diketiminato germylene chloride precursor, [{HC-(CMeNAr)2}GeCl] (where Ar = 2,6-iPr2C6H), with LiAlH4, though this proved unsuccessful, with the formation of an aluminum dihydride species instead. However, use of the weaker reducing agent NaBH4 resulted in the formation of a germylene hydride with a borane adduct. They found that the Ge-H bond was inert in this adduct, and so the borane adduct was able to be selectively removed at room temperature by a PMe3 scavenger, resulting in the desired terminal germylene hydride: [1]
When the β-diketiminato germylene chloride was treated with the alane-amine adduct AlH3•NMe3 in toluene at -4 °C, the solution underwent a color change from yellow to orange-red as the volatile trimethylamine was removed from the solution, and the resulting power was identified as the stable terminal germylene hydride with 60% yield, thus affording the first direct synthetic route: [2]
The synthesis and isolation of two digermanium germanium(II) hydrides have also been reported. [3] One of these compounds was formed by the addition of L-selectride to a bulky germanium(II) chloride in ether, while the other was formed by the addition of L-selectride to the same germanium(II) chloride in toluene, followed by filtration and the dropwise addition of PMe3.
The first stable acyclic germylene hydride was formed from the dissociation of a hydrido-digermene. [4] The initial monomeric germylene chloride was synthesized by the reaction of a bulky lithium amide ligand and GeCl2•dioxane. Although synthesized from multiple synthetic pathways, reaction of the germylene chloride with L-selectride in toluene at -80 °C most directly gives the orange crystalline hydrido-digermene with 52% yield. This digermene is thought to be in equilibrium with a two-coordinate hydrido-germylene, which can be isolated upon addition of DMAP (dimethylaminopyridine) at 20 °C, giving pale yellow crystals of the three-coordinate germylene hydride in 27% yield.
Similar to the germylene hydrides, the first known example of a germyliumylidene hydride (a germylene hydride cation) was isolated in 2014. [5] This compound can be formed from a two step process, starting with the reaction of potassium bis(NHC)-borate with GeCl2•dioxane to yield a zwitterionic germyliumylidene chloride. The Cl/H exchange can then be undergone via reaction with K[HB(s-Bu)
3] to give the germylene hydride cation in 91% yield.
The germylene hydride cation was also further reacted with the trityl cation, [Ph3C]+[B(C6F5)4]−, as a hydride scavenger, which resulted in the formation of an adduct with the three-coordinate germylene hydride cation acting a donor and a two-coordinate Ge(II) dication as an electron acceptor. [5]
The β-diketiminato germylene hydride reported Roesky et al. crystallizes in the P21/n space group as two isostructural molecules per unit. [2] X-ray crystallographic analysis of the orange-red crystals showed that the germanium atom is tetrahedrally coordinated by the hydrogen atom, the β-diketiminato ligand, and the germanium lone pair. The Ge-N bond length is reported to be 1.989 Å and the Ge-H bond displays an absorption at 1733 cm−1, corresponding to a stretching mode.
In an atoms-in-molecules analysis of GeH, 3 critical points (2 attractors and a bond critical point) were found. [6] Computed natural bond order and atoms-in-molecules charges both showed a positive charge on germanium and a negative charge on the hydrogen, indicating a significant charge transfer to hydrogen and generating a Ge+H− polarization. Similar results were found for Ge2H, with a positive charge on both germanium atoms and a negative charge on the hydrogen. However, there were 3 bond critical points found, as well as 1 ring critical point.
Germanium(II) hydrides have been reported to take part in a wide array of hydrogenation reactions. The first of these reactivities were reported by Jana et al. in 2009, but have been significantly expounded upon since then. [7] The bulk of reported reactivities are for the β-diketiminato germylene hydride. For many of these reactions, including reactions with alkynes and carbon dioxide, germanium is found to retain its oxidation state during the transfer of hydrogen.
The hydrogenation of carbon dioxide by the β-diketiminato germylene hydride proceeds at room temperature without a catalyst to form the germylene ester of formic acid in quantitative yield. [7] This germylene ester is reported to further react at -78 °C with the nucleophile lithium amidoborane (LiH2NBH3), which can be formed by treatment of the commercially available ammonia borane with n-BuLi, to generate lithium formate in high yield (85%-95%). [9] Lithium formate can be converted to formic acid with an acid workup and the original germylene hydride was found to reform in the generation of lithium formate, thus making a germylene hydride a potential catalyst for conversion of carbon dioxide to formic acid. Furthermore, it was found that the same germylene hydride reacts with 3 equivalents of ammonia borane at 60 °C in THF, producing methanol (after an aqueous workup) and again reforming the germylene hydride. [9] The stability of the germylene hydride to water also allows it to be recovered from the other reaction products via an extraction in benzene, an important property for any catalyst to be used to generate chemical feedstocks.
In 2014 Tan et al. showed that the β-diketiminato germylene formate and a closely related germylene formate compound can both produce methanol in high yield with alane used as a hydride source, providing yet another route for germylene hydrides to be used as catalysts for carbon dioxide transformations. [8]
The β-diketiminato germylene hydride is reported to react with several alkynes, including ethyl propiolate to form a vinyl germylene in good yield (>80%). [7] [10] This reaction occurs via the 1,2-addition of the germylene hydride across the alkyne triple bond, as opposed to an H2 elimination involving one of the C-H bonds of the alkyne. This reaction also requires no catalyst, in contrast to previously reported reactions of Ge(IV)-H and alkynes that have necessitated a variety of catalysts. [7]
Activated ketones, such as 2,2,2-trifluoroacetophenone, react with the β-diketiminato germylene hydride to form the corresponding germylene alkoxide in quantitative yield. [10] This reaction proceeds through a nucleophilic hydride addition to the carbonyl carbon of the ketone. However, this reaction is unsuccessful with less electrophilic ketones, such as acetone and benzophenone.
Two equivalents of elemental sulfur react with the β-diketiminato germylene hydride to give a germanium dithiocarboxylic acid analogue in moderate yield (60%). [7] In formation of the product, the oxidation state of germanium changes from Ge(II) to Ge(IV), thus requiring both the insertion and oxidative addition of elemental sulfur into the Ge(II)-H bond. No intermediates have been isolated and the mechanistic order of these steps is currently unknown.
There was also no evidence found for any tautomeric equilibrium of the germanium dithiocarboxylic acid analogue, which is reflected in the two varying Ge-S bond lengths (2.064 Å and 2.242 Å).
The previously reported [4] acyclic amido germylene hydride was found to catalyze the hydroboration of a variety of aldehydes and ketones with the mild borane reagent HBpin (pin = pinacolato). [11] The catalytic efficiency of aldehyde conversions was markedly greater for aliphatic aldehydes, with turnover frequencies (TOFs) ranging from 2000-6000 h−1, than for aromatic aldehydes, whose TOFs never exceeded 67. This efficiency discrepancy can be explained by the increased steric bulk of aromatic aldehydes that make it more difficult for the oxygen nucleophile to approach the Ge metal in the rate-determining step, as well as by the decreased Lewis basicity of the oxygen the aryl substituents impart.
The ketones were found to require a significantly higher catalyst loading than the aldehydes and, furthermore, reacted at a much slower rate than the aldehydes. Notably, however, the majority of reported catalytic efficiencies for both the aldehydes and ketones were greater for the germylene hydride than for previously reported transition metal catalyzed hydroborations using HBpin. [11]
Reaction of the β-diketiminato germylene hydride with nitrous oxide produces a germylene hydroxide, the first reported Group 14 metal hydride to react with N2O in such a way. [10] Nitrous oxide serves as an oxygen source to form this compound in almost quantitative yield.
Trimethylsilylazide (Me3SiN3) forms two products in a 1:1 ratio upon reaction with the β-diketiminato germylene hydride: a germanium(II) azide and a germanium(IV) diamide. [10] The germanium(II) azide is thought to form from the metathesis of the germylene hydride and trimethylazide, with concomitant elimination of Me3SiH. The mechanism for germanium(IV) diamide is less clear, though it is proposed that the pathway involves an oxidative addition-insertion of a nitrene (:NSiMe3), formed in situ via dinitrogen elimination from the azide, along with intramolecular hydride shifts.
The β-diketiminato germylene hydride has been reported to react with both ethyl diazoacetate and trimethylsilyldiazomethane, forming germanium(II)-substituted hydrazone derivatives. [12] The reaction progresses by the end-on insertion of the diazoalkane into the Ge(II)-H bond, with subsequent hydrogen transfer to the nitrogen. Electronic structure analysis shows that the stability of the product stems from a shifting of electron density from the N-N bond onto the Ge-N bond. The analysis also shows that diazoalkane insertion destabilizes the ring structure and that the R-group likely plays little role in the stability of the compound.
The oxidative addition of the β-diketiminato germylene hydride with diethyl azodicarboxylate (DEAD) is also reported to proceed at room temperature in high yield. [12]
In organic chemistry, an alkyne is an unsaturated hydrocarbon containing at least one carbon—carbon triple bond. The simplest acyclic alkynes with only one triple bond and no other functional groups form a homologous series with the general chemical formula CnH2n−2. Alkynes are traditionally known as acetylenes, although the name acetylene also refers specifically to C2H2, known formally as ethyne using IUPAC nomenclature. Like other hydrocarbons, alkynes are generally hydrophobic.
In organic chemistry, a carboxylic acid is an organic acid that contains a carboxyl group attached to an R-group. The general formula of a carboxylic acid is often written as R−COOH or R−CO2H, sometimes as R−C(O)OH with R referring to an organyl group, or hydrogen, or other groups. Carboxylic acids occur widely. Important examples include the amino acids and fatty acids. Deprotonation of a carboxylic acid gives a carboxylate anion.
In organic chemistry, a ketone is an organic compound with the structure R−C(=O)−R', where R and R' can be a variety of carbon-containing substituents. Ketones contain a carbonyl group −C(=O)−. The simplest ketone is acetone, with the formula (CH3)2CO. Many ketones are of great importance in biology and in industry. Examples include many sugars (ketoses), many steroids, and the solvent acetone.
Hydroboration–oxidation reaction is a two-step hydration reaction that converts an alkene into an alcohol. The process results in the syn addition of a hydrogen and a hydroxyl group where the double bond had been. Hydroboration–oxidation is an anti-Markovnikov reaction, with the hydroxyl group attaching to the less-substituted carbon. The reaction thus provides a more stereospecific and complementary regiochemical alternative to other hydration reactions such as acid-catalyzed addition and the oxymercuration–reduction process. The reaction was first reported by Herbert C. Brown in the late 1950s and it was recognized in his receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1979.
Lithium aluminium hydride, commonly abbreviated to LAH, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Li[AlH4] or LiAlH4. It is a white solid, discovered by Finholt, Bond and Schlesinger in 1947. This compound is used as a reducing agent in organic synthesis, especially for the reduction of esters, carboxylic acids, and amides. The solid is dangerously reactive toward water, releasing gaseous hydrogen (H2). Some related derivatives have been discussed for hydrogen storage.
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