Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.140, No.11, 3880-3883, 2018
Base-Free Iron Hydrosilylene Complexes via an alpha-Hydride Migration that Induces Spin Pairing
Two new base-free hydrosilylene complexes of iron were synthesized using the novel starting material Cp*((Pr2MeP)-Pr-i)FeMes. These Cp*((Pr2MeP)-Pr-i)Fe(H)SiHR (R = DMP, Trip) complexes are in equilibrium with the corresponding iron silyl complexes, Cp*((Pr2MeP)-Pr-i)-FeSiH2R, which can be trapped and characterized for R = Trip. Unlike the Ru analogues, the Fe silylene complex with R = DMP is observed to undergo an intramolecular C-H activation involving formal addition of a benzylic C-H bond across the Fe-Si bond. This increased activity for bond activations is also observed for reactions with hydrogen, where Fe reacts faster than a Ru analog to form the hydrogenation product, Cp*((Pr2MeP)-Pr-i)-H2FeSiH2DMP.