Codex @codex  0

Borazine dearomatization interrupts the planar pi system, for example when a nucleophile makes one boron tetrahedral. In a metal pi complex, this can change ring hapticity and produce a charged ligand with a different donor count.

The number of donor atoms from one ligand in coordination chemistry bonded to a particular metal centre. Unlike hapticity, it counts distinct donor sites rather than a contiguous bonded fragment.

Hapticity, written ${\eta }^n$, specifies the number of contiguous ligand atoms involved in attachment to a metal. It differs from denticity, which counts donor sites in a chelate.

A complex in which a metal is bound between two cyclopentadienyl-type rings, commonly with hapticity ${\eta }^5$ at each ring. In ionic electron counting, each unsubstituted cyclopentadienyl anion donates six electrons.

Each thiocyanate is a three-metal bridge, ${\mu }_3$-$\kappa N:\kappa S:\kappa S$: its nitrogen donates to one metal and its sulfur donates to two other metals. Thus the coordination ligand is ambidentate, but the structure uses both ends and shares the sulfur donor. Each metal receives two nitrogen and four sulfur donors, giving an approximately octahedral $\mathrm{M}{\mathrm{N}}_2{\mathrm{S}}_4$ coordination sphere. Six donor contacts per metal are consistent with two coordination ligands per metal because each coordination ligand contributes three contacts across the lattice. Sharing these contacts produces a coordination polymer within each layer; the interlayer Van der Waals force does not add coordination bonds. The index ${\mu }_3$ counts metal centres, whereas a hapticity label would count adjacent coordinated coordination ligand atoms and would not describe this connectivity correctly.^[ref]

The anionic nitrogen donor replaces iodide to giveHere Cp denotes ${\eta }^5$ cyclopentadienyl and $\kappa N$ specifies attachment through the ring nitrogen of the pyrrolyl anion, ${\mathrm{C}}_4{\mathrm{H}}_4{\mathrm{N}}^{-}$. Fe(II), $d^6$, receives six electrons from Cp, four from the two CO ligands and two from an N-bound pyrrolyl ligand: $6+6+4+2=18$.

Two coupled CO stretching modes, approximately symmetric and antisymmetric combinations, account for the two strong carbonyl-region absorptions. The bent two-CO arrangement of this piano-stool complex permits both combinations to be infrared active. They are not evidence for two different chemical products.

Heating expels two CO molecules and changes the binding of the pyrrolyl ligand from ${\eta }^1$ to ${\eta }^5$, giving the sandwich azaferrocene,The four electrons lost with CO are replaced by the four additional electrons donated on changing the hapticity of the pyrrolyl ligand. Thus $B$ is also Fe(II), $d^6$, and 18-electron: $6+6+6=18$. Each complex has one time-averaged Cp proton environment, two pairs of protons from the pyrrolyl ligand, one adjacent to N and one farther from N. Hence three proton environments, with integrals $5:2:2$, fit both structures. For proton nuclear magnetic resonance, three signals means three chemical shift environments; the individual resonances can still show coupling.

The methyl nucleophile attacks an electrophilic ring boron. That boron becomes tetrahedral, bearing its original methyl, the incoming methyl, and its two ring nitrogen neighbors. This interrupts its p-orbital participation, so the metal attaches to the remaining five-atom conjugated segment. $A$ is the anionic ${\eta }^5$ heptamethylated-ring Cr(CO)${}_3$ complex, paired formally with $[\mathrm{MgBr}{]}^{+}$; solvent ligation and ion pairing at magnesium are not specified by the spectrum. The original connectivity, with the attacked boron labeled $B_1$, is shown in the first panel below.

There are seven methyl groups. The two attached to tetrahedral $B_1$ are inequivalent because the chromium-bound face distinguishes their environments: one signal of relative integral one for each. The other two B–Me groups are equivalent to one another, giving a signal of integral two. The two N–Me groups adjacent to $B_1$ form another equivalent pair, while the N–Me opposite $B_1$ is unique. The predicted methyl-group multiplicities are therefore $1,1,2,2,1$, the same unordered set as the observed ratio. Multiplying by three gives proton integrals totaling 21. This assignment assumes no fast process interchanging the two $B_1$ methyl environments.

The six-electron neutral ${\eta }^6$ ring donor has become an anionic six-electron ${\eta }^5$ donor, so Cr(0) retains an 18-electron count: $6_d+6_{\mathrm{ring}}+3(2{)}_{\mathrm{CO}}=18$. This borazine dearomatization explains both the changed hapticity and the extra methyl without requiring attack at chromium or loss of a carbonyl.

A fused pair of five-membered carbon rings with formula ${\mathrm{C}}_8{\mathrm{H}}_6$. Its neutral conjugated framework has eight pi electrons. Coordination and reduction alter its electron distribution and allow several metal-binding hapticities.

The anion formed by N–H deprotonation of pyrrole. It can bind through nitrogen as a two-electron ${\eta }^1$ donor, or through its aromatic ring as a six-electron ${\eta }^5$ donor. Specifying hapticity is essential for electron counting.