The catalytic conversion of unsaturated small molecules such as nitriles into reduced products is of interest for the production of fine chemicals. In this vein, metal-ligand cooperativity has been leveraged to promote such reactivity, often conferring stability to bound substrate - a balancing act that may offer activation at the cost of turnover efficiency. This report describes the reactivity of a [(diphosphine)Ni] compound with pnictogen carbon triple bonds (R-C[triple bond, length as m-dash]E; E = N, P), where the diphosphine contains two pendant borane groups. For E = N, cooperative nitrile coordination is observed to afford {Ni}2 complexes displaying B-N interactions, whereas for E = P, B-P interactions are absent. This work additionally outlines a structure-activity relationship that uses nitrile dihydroboration as a model reaction to unveil the effect of SCS stabilization, employing [(diphosphine)Ni] where the diphosphine contains 0, 1, or 2 pendant Lewis acid groups.
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