We report the synthesis of the first series of terminal phosphido iron complexes supported by a -diketiminato ligand (Dippnacnac) and their catalytic activity in dehydrocoupling of secondary phosphines. Anionic and neutral mono-or diphosphido complexes were obtained from the reaction of [(Dippnacnac)FeCl 2 Li(dme) 2 ] with the R 2 PLi (R = iPr, tBu, Cy, Ph) phosphides by tuning the stoichiometric ratio, polarity of the solvent, and the bulkiness of the substituents at the P-atom. The structures of the synthesized compounds were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which revealed that the iron [a] Reports by Webster et al. [14,27,43,[98][99][100][101][102] on the use of an iron(II) -diketiminato pre-catalyst, [(Dippnacnac)Fe(CH 2 TMS)] for the hydrophosphination of unsaturated hydrocarbons and dehydrocoupling of primary and secondary phosphines postulated the formation of an intermediate terminal phosphido complex. In the case of hydrophosphination, the authors proposed that the active catalyst is a monomeric phosphido complex; however, the active species was isolated as a bridging complex, [(Dippnacnac)Fe(PRH(CH 2 ) 3 CH=CH 2 )] 2 . [27] Worth emphasizing is that this compound is not only the first -diketiminate iron complex bridged by phosphido groups, but also a perfect example highlighting the catalytic potential of lowcoordinate iron compounds. The hydrophosphination and dehydrocoupling processes are both ideally suited for the synthesis of novel P-containing compounds and their catalytic improvements will expand the access to functionalized phosphines, diphosphanes, and other P-containing derivatives.Recently, we have reported a new synthetic method to access iron(II) phosphanylphosphido complexes using as starting materials the -diketiminato complex [(Dippnacnac)FeCl 2 -Li(dme) 2 ] [103] and lithium salts of diphosphanes, R 2 P-P(SiMe 3 )Li (R = iPr, tBu). [104] Due to the propensity of the diphosphorus ligand to undergo P-P bond cleavage, these iron(II) phosphanylphosphido complexes have rather limited catalytic potential. Considering this limitation, we directed our attention to iron(II) complexes with phosphido R 2 P ligands. In this paper, we detail the syntheses, structures, and spectroscopic characterization of the first series of terminal phosphido Fe II complexes stabilized by -diketiminates. We also discuss their thermal stability and catalytic activity in promoting the dehydrocoupling of secondary phosphines.
Reaction of [(Dippnacnac)FeCl 2 ] with Ph 2 PLi:To the suspension of [(Dippnacnac)FeCl 2 ] (0.272 g, 0.5 mmol) in 2.5 mL of solvent (tolu-Eur.