Transient Cu–H monomers have long been invoked
in the mechanisms
of substrate insertion in Cu–H catalysis. Their role from Cu–H
aggregates has been mostly inferred since ligands to stabilize these
monomeric intermediates for systematic studies remain limited. Within
the last decade, new sterically demanding N-heterocyclic
carbene (NHC) ligands have led to isolable Cu–H dimers and,
in some cases, spectroscopic characterization of Cu–H monomers
in solution. We report an NHC ligand, IPr*R, containing para R groups of CHPh2 and CPh3 on the ligand periphery
for the isolation of a Cu–H monomer for insertion of internal
alkenes. This reactivity has not been reported for (NHC)CuH complexes
despite their common application in Cu–H-catalyzed hydrofunctionalization.
Changing from CHPh2 to CPh3 impacts the relative
concentration of Cu–H monomers, rate of alkene insertion, and
reaction of a trisubstituted internal alkene. Specifically, for R
= CPh3, monomeric (IPr*CPh3)CuH was isolated
and provided >95% monomer (10 mM in C6D6).
In
contrast, for R = CHPh2, solutions of [(IPr*CHPh2)CuH]2 are 80% dimer and 20% (IPr*CHPh2)CuH
monomer at 25 °C based on 1H, 13C, and 1H–13C HMBC NMR spectroscopy. Quantitative 1H NMR kinetic studies on cyclopentene insertion into Cu–H
complexes to form the corresponding Cu–cyclopentyl complexes
demonstrate a strong dependence on the rate of insertion and concentration
of the Cu–H monomer. Only (IPr*CPh3)CuH, which has
a high monomer concentration, underwent regioselective insertion of
a trisubstituted internal alkene, 1-methylcyclopentene, to give (IPr*CPh3)Cu(2-methylcyclopentyl), which has been crystallographically
characterized. We also demonstrated that (IPr*CPh3)CuH
catalyzes the hydroboration of cyclopentene and methylcyclopentene
with pinacolborane.