Coupling of an N-heterocyclic carbene on iron with alkynes to form η5-cyclopentadienyl-diimine ligands.
A cyclometalated N-heterocyclic carbene ligand in a half-sandwich iron complex was found to couple with alkynes, leading to a unique type of ring opening of the carbene ligand and the formation of ferrocenyl-diimine complexes. An intermediary iron complex obtained from the reaction with phenylacetylene reveals that the ring opening follows the formation of a fused heterocycle consisting of an imidazole ring and two alkynes.
Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, and Research Center for Materials Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602 (Japan).
Tsubasa
T
Hatanaka
Yasuhiro
Y
Ohki
Kazuyuki
K
Tatsumi
N-heterocyclic carbene; bond cleavage; diimines; iron; sandwich complexes