TRANSFER OF METHYLENE GROUPS PROMOTED BY METAL COMPLEXATION

SELECTIVE chemical transformations involving hydrocarbons are a major goal in synthetic chemistry. Transition-metal complexes are capable of promoting a range of selective transformations of organic molecules u nder mild conditions(1,2), and much effort has been devoted to studyin g their reactivity towards hydrocarbons(3-7). Here we report a reactio n promoted by a rhodium complex in which a methylene (CH2) group can b e abstracted from a methyl (CH3) group and inserted into a variety of bonds, such as Si-H, Si-Si and C-H. Our approach presently requires a certain coordination geometry in the metal complex, involving chelatio n of the metal centre, but we believe that it can be extended to other substrates capable of metal coordination and may eventually lead to a general strategy for CH2 transfer from hydrocarbons to other molecule s under mild conditions.