The competition between conventional coordination and hemichelation of a Pd(II) center of three different palladacycles was probed by reacting the tricarbonyl(η 6 -3-phenylprop-1-enyl)chromium anion with μ-chloro-bridged palladacycles. Structural X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that the main products of the reaction are conventional (η 3 -allyl)Pd(II) complexes. The latter display significant dynamic behavior in solution, as suggested by 1 H NMR spectroscopy. According to DFT calculations this dynamic behavior can be related to conformational equilibria and to possible chemical exchanges leading to Pd(II) hemichelates. The (η 3 -allyl)Pd(II) complexes convert readily to homoleptic bischelates of Pd(II) and to a bis-hemichelate of a Pd(I)−Pd(I) unit via a reductive disproportionation reaction. The latter Pd(I)−Pd(I) complex bears structural features very similar to those of electron-saturated bis(μ-allyl)-bridged Pd(I) complexes in the literature: the Pd−Pd interaction is only weakly covalent and is dominated by noncovalent attractive interactions, as revealed by NCI analyses. The incipient covalent interaction of the Pd(I) centers with CO ligands of the Cr(CO) 3 moieties is too weak to significantly hinder the motion of the metalcarbonyl rotor in solution, which leaves each Pd center formally unsaturated with a 14-valence-electron count. DFT investigations sustained by QTAIM, NCI, ELF, and ETS-NOCV analyses suggest the predominance of noncovalent attractive forces in the stabilization of the bis(μ-allyl)-bridged Pd(I)−Pd(I) complex.
■ INTRODUCTIONThe quest for a comprehensive account of the forces that contribute to chemical bonding in transition-metal complexes containing metal−metal interactions 1 is a challenging domain of research that underwent renewed interest 2 with the recent development of theoretical methods 3 capable of accounting for nonlocal attractive interactions such as the London force 4 in large complexes (up to 120 atoms) at moderate computational cost. 5 Such new tools pave the way for a more comprehensive description of the forces that are responsible for molecular cohesion 1b,2b,c,6 and potentially allow the rational elaboration of new paradigms for coordination chemistry that can now include noncovalent attractive forces as a significant source of molecular cohesion and stability. The term hemichelation 7 is one of these new concepts that was recently proposed to define a nonclassical chelation mode of d-block transition metals by a heteroditopic ligand with which both covalent and noncovalent interactions between the ligand and a metal are central to the stabilization of the associated transition-metal complex. 8