Heterocumulene metathesis by iridium guanidinate and ureylene complexes: catalysis involving reversible insertion to form six-membered metallacycles

The four-membered metallacycles Cp*Ir((NAr)2C=Z) have been prepared for Z = NAr and Z = O. These complexes undergo facile exchange with free heterocumulenes. This exchange process can be employed to effect the rapid, catalytic metathesis of aryl carbodiimides at room temperature and the metathesis of aryl carbodiimides with aryl isocyanates at slightly elevated temperature. The exchange process appears to proceed via a novel associative mechanism involving ring expansion to form a six-membered metallacycle rather than cycloreversion to give an imido complex. Observation of key intermediates and the results of crossover experiments support this hypothesis.