New 6,6Ј-dibromo-and 6,6Ј-bis(dimethylamino)-substituted 2,2Ј-diphosphanylbiphenyl ligands 11-14 were prepared starting from 2,2Ј-dibromo-4,4Ј-dimethyl-6,6Ј-dinitro-1,1Ј-biphenyl (4). Depending on the phosphane groups [diphenylphosphanyl (11, 13) or diisopropylphosphanyl (12,14)] the palladium dichloride complexes show different coordination symmetry. Whereas the smaller diphenylphosphanyl groups lead to C 2 -symmetric complexes, the respective bis(diisopropyl)phosphanes 12 and 14 form C 1 -symmetric complexes that show fluxional behavior due to the restricted rotation of the isopropyl groups as well as the exchange of atom positions within the C 1 -symmetric conformer. All complexes have[a] TU Chemnitz, 4858 been tested as precatalysts in the Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reaction of 2-bromotoluene and phenylboronic acid. The activity of the catalytic system increases with the size of the diphosphanes and the donating ability of the ligand. In contrast to C 2 -symmetric palladium complex 15, platinum complex 19 was found to be C 1 -symmetric in the solid state despite the fact that both complexes have the small bis-(diphenylphosphanyl)-substituted diphosphane ligand 11 in common. NiBr 2 adduct 20 with a similar diphosphane 13 exists as a mixture of distorted square-planar and tetrahedral coordination sphere geometries in equilibrium with each other.Scheme 1. 1,1Ј-Biphenyl-2,2Ј-diyl-bridged diphosphanes discussed below and the numbering for relevant positions.phanes are of interest, as the large bromo substituents in the ortho positions lead to high activation barriers for the rotation around the central C-C bond. [22] Additionally, the dimethylamino groups can increase the electron density of the biphenyl system, [23] act as additional hemilabile donors [24] or form proton sponge systems. [25][26][27]
Results and DiscussionLigands based on 2-phosphanyl-and 2,2Ј-diphosphanylbiphenyls are accessible by various methods employing electrophilic, [28] nucleophilic, [29] and radical chemistry [30] as well as transition-metal-catalyzed [31,32] reactions. A particularly effective method has been the treatment of a 2,2Ј-di-www.eurjic.org FULL PAPER lithiated biphenyl with a chlorophosphane. [28,33,34] Dilithiated biphenyl species are easily prepared by halogen/lithium exchange from the 2,2Ј-diiodo-/2,2Ј-dibromobiphenyls. We prepared diiodobiphenyl 6 and dibromobiphenyl 7 by the route depicted in Scheme 2. [35,36] The known diamine derivative 5 can be prepared from inexpensive and commercially available 4-methyl-2-nitroaniline (1). The methyl group in the 4-position blocks the C-4 atom from electrophilic attack by bromine in the first step to derivative 2; consequently, 2 is the only isolable regioisomer. [37] Moreover, the 4-methyl group improves the solubility of all compounds and simplifies workup procedures. The key step in the synthesis is an Ullmann [35,38] homo-coupling of iodo compound 3 to form the central C-C bond in 4. This reaction is highly selective and proceeds smoothly under relatively mild conditions in ...