Dipyrromethane-diphosphine: the effect of meso substituents on the formation of nickel complexes and on their performance in the transfer hydrogenation of ketones

Three dipyrromethane-diphosphine ligands containing phenyl (L1H2), ethyl (L2H2) and cyclohexyl (L3H2) groups at their meso positions and their nickel complexes were synthesized and structurally characterized. Treatment of Ph2C(C4H3N)(2)-1,9-(CH2PPh2)(2) (L1H2) with [NiCl2(DME)] gave complex [NiCl2(kappa(2)-P,P-L1H2)] 2a. Conversely, the analogous reactions of L2H2 and L3H2 with [NiCl2(DME)] showed a mixture of products containing both a pyrrolide nitrogen coordinated complex of type [Ni(kappa(4)-P,N,N,P-L)] 3 without an exogenous base and a chelated complex of type 2a. In addition, all three ligands react with [NiCl2(DME)] in the presence of a strong base to give a complex of type 3. Furthermore, a novel binuclear Ni(0) complex bearing L1H2 was characterized by X-ray crystallography. Both complexes 2a and 3 (0.5 mol% of loading) catalyze the transfer hydrogenation of a series of aromatic and aliphatic ketones (20 substrates) to their corresponding secondary alcohols using (PrOH)-Pr-i as a hydrogen source in the presence of KOH at 100 degrees C in 6 h. The kinetic trace of the catalytic reaction shows that the meso-phenyl substituted diphosphine coordinated nickel complexes perform better than the other two ligand coordinated nickel complexes.