The reactivities of iminoboranes with carbenes: BN isosteres of carbene-alkyne adducts

Abstract

The first examples of adducts of cyclic alkyl(amino) carbenes (CAAC) and N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) with iminoboranes have been synthesized and isolated at low temperature (-45 °C). The adducts show short BN bonds and planarity at boron, mimicking the structures of the isoelectronic imine functionality. When di-tert-butyliminoborane was reacted with 1,3-bis(isopropyl)imidazol-2-ylidene (IPr), the initially formed Lewis acid-base adduct quickly rearranged to form a new carbene substituted with an aminoborane at the 4-position. Warming the iminoborane-CAAC adduct to room temperature resulted in an intramolecular cyclization to give a bicyclic 1,2-azaborilidine compound.

Keywords: boron; carbenes; iminoborane adducts; rearrangement.