Unexpected selectivities in C-H activations of toluene and p-xylene at cationic platinum(II) diimine complexes.: New mechanistic insight into product-determining factors

The C-H activation of toluene and p-xylene at cationic Pt-II diimine complexes (N-N)Pt(CH3)(H2O)+BF4- (N-N = Ar-N = CMe-CMe = N-Ar; 1(BF4-), N-f-N-f, Ar = 3,5-(CF3)(2)C6H3); (2)(BF4-), N'-N', Ar = 2,6-(CH3)(2)C6H3) has been investigated. The reactions were performed at ambient temperature in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE), and after complete conversion of the starting material to mixtures of Pt-aryl/Pt-benzyl complexes and methane, acetonitrile was added to trap the products as more stable acetonitrile adducts. In the reactions with toluene, the relative amounts of products resulting from aromatic C-H activation were found to decrease in the order (N-N)Pt(m-tolyl)(NCMe)(+) > (N-N)Pt(p-tolyl)(NCMe)(+) > (N-N)Pt(o-tolyl)(NCMe)+ for both 1 and 2. Unlike the reaction at 1, significant amounts of the benzylic activation product (N'-N')Pt(benzyl)(NCMe)(+) were concurrently formed in the C-H activation of toluene at 2. The C-H activation of p-xylene revealed an even more remarkable difference between 1 and 2. Here, the product ratios of (N-N)Pt(xylyl)(NCMe)(+) and (N-N)Pt(p-methylbenzyl)(NCMe)(+) were found to be 90:10 and 7:93 for reactions at 1 and 2, respectively. The elimination of toluene from (N-f-N-f)Pt(Tol)(2) species (3a-c; a, Tol = o-tolyl; b, Tol = m-tolyl; c, Tol = p-tolyl) after protonolysis with 1 equiv of HBF4 was investigated. Most notably, protonation in neat TFE followed by addition of acetonitrile gave a 77:23 mixture of (N-f-N-f)Pt(mtolyl)(NCMe)(+) (4b) and (N-f-N-f)Pt(p-tolyl)(NCMe)(+) (4c) from all three isomeric bis(tolyl) complexes 3a-c. The presence of acetonitrile during the protonation reactions resulted in considerably less isomerization. This behavior is explained by an associative mechanism for the product-determining displacement of toluene by the solvent. For the C-H activation reactions, our findings suggest the existence of a dynamic equilibrium between the isomeric intermediates (N-N)Pt(aryl)(CH4)(+) (aryl = tolyl/benzyl from 1; xylyl/p-methylbenzyl from 2). The observed selectivities might then be explained by steric and electronic effects in the pentacoordinate transition-state structures for the solvent-induced associative elimination of methane from these intermediates.