Syntheses of halogenated ethenyl isocyanide chromium complexes as organometallic precursor molecules for ethenyl and ethynyl isocyanides.

The radical alkylation of tetraethylammonium pentacarbonyl(cyano)chromate 1 yielded the halogenated ethyl isocyanide complexes [(CO)5Cr(CN-CClX-CClYF)] 3 (a, X= Cl, Y= F; b, X = F, Y= F and c, X=Y= Cl). Dehalogenation of 3 using zinc in diethyl ether gave [(CO)5Cr(CN-CX=CFY)] 4. The compounds 4a, b reacted with various nucleophiles exclusively at the difluoromethylene group. The unstable phosphorane 5, which is formed on reaction of 4b with trimethylphosphane, decomposed thermally and on hydrolysis yielding pentacarbonyl(1,2-difluoroethenyl isocyanide)chromium (6). The cyano substituent can be introduced in the beta position of the isocyanide function by reaction of 4a, b with potassium cyanide, leading to the formation of [(CO)5Cr(CN-CX=CF-CN)] (7). Reactions of 4a, b with organolithium or organomagnesium compounds yielded [(CO)5Cr(CN-CX=CF-R)] (8) and [(CO)5Cr(CN-CF=CF-C...C-CF=CF-NC)Cr(CO)5] (10). The trimethylsilyl group in 8a, b, d could be removed by a solution of potassium carbonate in methanol leading to [(CO)5Cr(CN-CX=CF-Cn-H)] (11) (n=2,4). Octacarbonyldicobalt reacted with 8e under coordination of the C-C triple bond to the hexacarbonyldicobalt fragment, resulting in the cluster compound 12. The crystal and molecular structure of 8i, 11 a, b, and 12 were elucidated by X-ray crystallography. The alkenyl and alkynyl isocyanides CN-CCl=CF2 (13a), CN-CF=CF2 (13b), CN-CCl=CClF (13c), CN-CF=CFH (14), CN-CC-H (15), CN-CC-CN (16), and CN-CCl=CF-CN (17) were obtained by flash vacuum pyrolysis of 4a, 4b, 4c, 6, and 7a, respectively.