Nucleophilic abstraction is a type of an organometallic reaction which can be defined as a

nucleophilic attack In chemistry, a nucleophile is a chemical species that forms bonds by donating an electron pair. All molecules and ions with a free pair of electrons or at least one pi bond can act as nucleophiles. Because nucleophiles donate electrons, they are ...

on a

ligand In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule ( functional group) that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. The bonding with the metal generally involves formal donation of one or more of the ligand's elec ...

which causes part or all of the original ligand to be removed from the metal along with the nucleophile.Spessard, Gary; Miessler, Gary (2010).''Organometallic Chemistry: Second Edition''. pp. 285-289

Alkyl abstraction

While nucleophilic abstraction of an

alkyl group In organic chemistry, an alkyl group is an alkane missing one hydrogen. The term ''alkyl'' is intentionally unspecific to include many possible substitutions. An acyclic alkyl has the general formula of . A cycloalkyl is derived from a cycloalk ...

is relatively uncommon, there are examples of this type of reaction. In order for this reaction to be favorable, the metal must first be oxidized because reduced metals are often poor

leaving group In chemistry, a leaving group is defined by the IUPAC as an atom or group of atoms that detaches from the main or residual part of a substrate during a reaction or elementary step of a reaction. However, in common usage, the term is often limited ...

s. The oxidation of the metal causes the M-C bond to weaken, which allows for the nucleophilic abstraction to occur. G.M. Whitesides and D.J. Boschetto use the halogens Br₂ and I₂ as M-C cleaving agents in the following example of nucleophilic abstraction. It is important to note that the product of this reaction is inverted with respect to the stereochemical center attached to the metal. There are several possibilities for the mechanism of this reaction which are shown in the following schematic. In path a, the first step proceeds with the

oxidative addition Oxidative addition and reductive elimination are two important and related classes of reactions in organometallic chemistry. Oxidative addition is a process that increases both the oxidation state and coordination number of a metal centre. Oxid ...

of the halogen to the metal complex. This step results in the oxidized metal center that is needed to weaken the M-C bond. The second step can proceed with either the nucleophilic attack of the halide ion on the α-carbon of the alkyl group or

reductive elimination Reductive elimination is an elementary step in organometallic chemistry in which the oxidation state of the metal center decreases while forming a new covalent bond between two ligands. It is the microscopic reverse of oxidative addition, and is ...

, both of which result in the inversion of stereochemistry. In path b, the metal is first oxidized without the addition of the halide. The second step occurs with a nucleophilic attack of the α-carbon which again results in the inversion of stereochemistry.

Carbonyl abstraction

Trimethylamine N-oxide Trimethylamine ''N''-oxide (TMAO) is an organic compound with the formula (CH3)3NO. It is in the class of amine oxides. Although the anhydrous compound is known, trimethylamine ''N''-oxide is usually encountered as the dihydrate. Both the anhydr ...

(Me₃NO) can be used in the nucleophilic abstraction of

carbonyl In organic chemistry, a carbonyl group is a functional group composed of a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen atom: C=O. It is common to several classes of organic compounds, as part of many larger functional groups. A compound containi ...

. There is an nucleophilic attack of Me₃NO on the carbon of the carbonyl group which pushes electrons on the metal. The reaction then proceeds to kick out CO₂ and NMe₃. An article from the Bulletin of Korean Chemical Society Journal showed interesting results where one iridium complex undergoes carbonyl abstraction while a very similar iridium complex undergoes hydride extraction.

Hydrogen abstraction

Nucleophilic abstraction can occur on a ligand of a metal if the conditions are right. For instance the following example shows the nucleophilic abstraction of H⁺ from an arene ligand attached to chromium. The

electron withdrawing In chemistry, an electron-withdrawing group (EWG) is a substituent that has some of the following kinetic and thermodynamic implications: *with regards to electron transfer, electron-withdrawing groups enhance the oxidizing power tendency of the ...

nature of the chromium allows for the reaction to occur as
facile
reaction.

Methyl abstraction

Fischer carbene A Fischer carbene is a divalent organic ligand in an organometallic compound. In a Fischer carbene, the carbene ligand is a σ-donor π-acceptor ligand. Because π-backdonation from the metal centre is generally weak, the carbene carbon is electr ...

can undergo nucleophilic abstraction where a methyl group is removed. With the addition of a small abstracting agent, the abstracting agent would normally add to the carbene carbon. In this case however, the steric bulk of the abstracting agent that is added causes the abstraction of the methyl group. If the methyl group is replaced with ethyl, the reaction proceeds 70 times slower which is to be expected with a S_N2 displacement mechanism.

Silylium abstraction

silylium ion A silylium ion is a reactive silyl-containing cation with the formula . With three rather than the usual four bonds to Si, silylium ions are the silicon analogues of carbenium ions. They can be viewed as protonated silylenes. Early efforts to gene ...

is a silicon cation with only three bonds and a positive charge. The abstraction of the silylium ion is seen from the

ruthenium Ruthenium is a chemical element with the symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a rare transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like the other metals of the platinum group, ruthenium is inert to most other chemical ...

complex shown below. In the first step of this mechanism one of the acetonitrile groups is replaced by a silicon molecule where the bond between the silicon and the hydrogen is coordinating to the ruthenium. In the second step a ketone is added for the nucleophilic abstraction of the silylium ion and the hydrogen is left on the metal.

α-Acyl abstraction

One example of nucleophilic abstraction of an α-acyl group is seen when MeOH is added to the following palladium complex. The mechanism follows a

tetrahedral In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the ...

intermediate which results in the methyl

ester In chemistry, an ester is a compound derived from an oxoacid (organic or inorganic) in which at least one hydroxyl group () is replaced by an alkoxy group (), as in the substitution reaction of a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. Glycerides a ...

and the reduced palladium complex shown. The following year a similar mechanism was proposed where oxidative addition of an aryl halide followed by migratory CO insertion and is followed by nucleophilic abstraction of the α-acyl by MeOH. One of the advantages of this intermolecular nucleophilic abstraction is the production of linear acyl derivatives. The intramolecular attack of these linear acyl derivatives gives rise to

cyclic compound A cyclic compound (or ring compound) is a term for a compound in the field of chemistry in which one or more series of atoms in the compound is connected to form a ring. Rings may vary in size from three to many atoms, and include examples where ...

s such as

lactone Lactones are cyclic carboxylic esters, containing a 1-oxacycloalkan-2-one structure (), or analogues having unsaturation or heteroatoms replacing one or more carbon atoms of the ring. Lactones are formed by intramolecular esterification of the co ...

s or lactams.R. F. Heck
Pure Appl. Chem., 1978, 50, 691

References

Inorganic chemistry Organometallic chemistry