Recently there has been great interest in the use of transition metal compounds supported by a redox active ligand which are able to serve as bifunctional catalysts for two electron processes. We have previously shown that iron aminoimide compounds bearing bisphosphinoborane ligands activate of Si-H and H-H bonds to generate hydrazido and amide species. We have also reported activation of H-H and Si-H bonds in the context of catalytic hydrogenation of olefins and hydrosilylation of aldehydes by related low valent nickel compounds. Computational studies of the Ni system have alluded to the importance of the M-B interaction in the activation of E-H bonds. The M-B unit in these compounds can be thought of as a transition metal based frustrated Lewis pair with an electron rich metal center acting as the base with the nearby Lewis acidic borane acting as a hydride acceptor. Efforts to expand this chemistry to other low valent metal centers supported by a similar ligand scaffold and the resultant coordination chemistry, E-H bond activation chemistry and catalytic activity towards some small molecules will be discussed. 

Low valent bisphosphinoborane transition metal compounds: Unusual coordination chemistry and E-H bond activation

248th National Meeting (2014)

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