Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / Paper 2 / B8 / b / i

The metal interacts with the extra in-plane bonding system of benzyne, not by replacing the ordinary out-of-plane aromatic pi system. Take the ring and metal to lie in the $xz$ plane, with the metal-to-C–C-midpoint direction along $z$ and C1–C2 along $x$. The carbon orbitals directed toward the metal form an occupied symmetric combination and an empty antisymmetric combination.

The occupied in-plane $\pi$ combination donates into an empty metal orbital of matching symmetry. An occupied metal $d_{xz}$-type orbital overlaps with the in-plane ${\pi }^{\ast }$ combination, providing back-donation. These are the same symmetry principles as alkene binding, rotated into the plane of the ring. The carbon $p_y$ orbitals perpendicular to the ring continue to participate in its aromatic system. The strained formal triple bond therefore does not supply two independent, ordinary out-of-plane alkene interactions.

Strong population of the in-plane acceptor can be described as reduction of the aryne to a dianionic, metallacyclopropene-like ligand. That description emphasizes two M–C sigma bonds and loss of the extra C–C pi bond. It is particularly useful for early-metal aryne complexes. The lower panels of the orbital schematic distinguish the interacting in-plane orbitals from the perpendicular aromatic set.