New Rhodium(I) Carbene Complexes from Carbene Transfer Reactions

The Rh(I) complexes RhCl(diene)(NHC) have been synthesized from Ag(I) carbene precursors, where NHC is one of the N-heterocyclic carbenes 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene (IPr), 1,3-bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene (IMes), 3-methyl-1-phenacylimidazol-2-ylidene (MAI), and 3-methyl-1-picolylimidazol-2-ylidene (MPI), and diene is either NBD or COD. The complexes are characterized by elemental analysis, 1H NMR and IR spectroscopies, mass spectrometry, and, in the case of RhCl(NBD)(IMes) and RhCl(COD)(MAI), X-ray crystallography. The new Ag(I) carbene complexes [Ag(IPr)2]PF6 and [Ag(IMes)2]PF6 are also reported.