Volume 135, Issue 40 e202305235
Forschungsartikel

An Experimental and Computational Investigation Rules Out Direct Nucleophilic Addition on the N2 Ligand in Manganese Dinitrogen Complex [Cp(CO)2Mn(N2)]

Dr. Quentin Le Dé

Dr. Quentin Le Dé

LCC-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 205 route de Narbonne, BP44099, 31077 Toulouse cedex 4, France

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Amal Bouammali

Dr. Amal Bouammali

LCC-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 205 route de Narbonne, BP44099, 31077 Toulouse cedex 4, France

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Christian Bijani

Dr. Christian Bijani

LCC-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 205 route de Narbonne, BP44099, 31077 Toulouse cedex 4, France

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Laure Vendier

Dr. Laure Vendier

LCC-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 205 route de Narbonne, BP44099, 31077 Toulouse cedex 4, France

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Iker del Rosal

Dr. Iker del Rosal

LPCNO, CNRS & INSA, Université Paul Sabatier, 135 Avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Dmitry A. Valyaev

Corresponding Author

Dr. Dmitry A. Valyaev

LCC-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 205 route de Narbonne, BP44099, 31077 Toulouse cedex 4, France

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Chiara Dinoi

Corresponding Author

Dr. Chiara Dinoi

LPCNO, CNRS & INSA, Université Paul Sabatier, 135 Avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Antoine Simonneau

Corresponding Author

Dr. Antoine Simonneau

LCC-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 205 route de Narbonne, BP44099, 31077 Toulouse cedex 4, France

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 28 June 2023

Abstract

We have re-examined the reactivity of the manganese dinitrogen complex [Cp(CO)2Mn(N2)] (1, Cp=η5-cyclopentadienyl, C5H5) with phenylithium (PhLi). By combining experiment and density functional theory (DFT), we have found that, unlike previously reported, the direct nucleophilic attack of the carbanion onto coordinated dinitrogen does not occur. Instead, PhLi reacts with one of the CO ligands to provide an anionic acylcarbonyl dinitrogen metallate [Cp(CO)(N2)MnCOPh]Li (3) that is stable only below −40 °C. Full characterization of 3 (including single crystal X-ray diffraction) was performed. This complex decomposes quickly above −20 °C with N2 loss to give a phenylate complex [Cp(CO)2MnPh]Li (2). The latter compound was erroneously formulated as an anionic diazenido compound [Cp(CO)2MnN(Ph)=N]Li in earlier reports, ruling out the claimed and so-far unique behavior of the N2 ligand in 1. DFT calculations were run to explore both the hypothesized and the experimentally verified reactivity of 1 with PhLi and are fully consistent with our results. Direct attack of a nucleophile on metal-coordinated N2 remains to be demonstrated.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.