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Reductive Insertion of Elemental Chalcogens into Boron–Boron Multiple Bonds
Author(s) -
Braunschweig Holger,
Dellermann Theresa,
Ewing William C.,
Kramer Thomas,
Schneider Christoph,
Ullrich Stefan
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201503398
Subject(s) - boron , chalcogen , electron deficiency , sulfur , chemistry , electron , crystallography , inorganic chemistry , computational chemistry , organic chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
The syntheses of sulfur‐ and selenium‐bridged cyclic compounds containing boron stabilized by N‐heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have been achieved by the reductive insertion of elemental chalcogens into boron–boron multiple bonds. The three pairs of bonding electrons between the boron atoms in the triply bonded diboryne enabled six‐electron reduction reactions, resulting in the formation of [2.2.1]‐bicyclic systems wherein bridgehead boron atoms are spanned by three chalcogen bridges. A similar reaction using a diborene (boron–boron double bond) resulted in the reductive transfer of both pairs of bonding electrons to three sulfur atoms, yielding a NHC‐stabilized trisulfidodiborolane. The demonstration of these six‐ and four‐electron reductions lends support to the presence of three and two pairs of bonding electrons between the boron atoms of the diboryne and diborene, respectively, a fact that may be useful in future discussions on bond order.