Light group 13 chloride diazadiene complexes: consequences of varying substituent bulk

BCl3 cyclizes diazadiene (2,6-Pr(i)2C6H3NCH)2 1 through a dichloroborated intermediate (2,6-Pr(i)2C6H3NCHCl)2BCl] to give, in polar aprotic solvents, a spontaneously dehyrochlorinated C-chloro diazaborole 4. In contrast, reaction of AlCl3 with 1 forms only acyclic mono- or di-adducts 5a/b and 6. Alkali metal reductions of gave mixtures of 4 and diazaborole (2,6-Pr(i)2C6H3NCH)2BCl] 7. Pd(0) reduction cleanly gave diazaborole 7. Reduction of 6 gave a low yield of the closed shell C-C coupled dimer 8 of the putative diazadiene radical anion 1.AlCl2 complex monomer. An alternative synthesis for diazadiene (2,6-Pr(i)2C6H4NCPh)2, 2, is reported. Reduction of 2/BCl3, in which additional phenyl groups on the diazadiene C-2 and C-3 atoms hinder the radical coupling observed in , gave predominantly diazaborole .BCl, (9a) contaminated with .BCl2, (9b) the first such stable radical diazadiene complex of boron. All compounds 2-9 were characterized by X-ray diffraction and NMR spectroscopy. Stable radical was additionally characterized by EPR spectroscopy and density functional computation.