RESUMO
Proton donors are important components of many reactions mediated by samarium diiodide (SmI2). The addition of water to SmI2 creates a reagent system that enables the reduction of challenging substrates through proton-coupled electron-transfer (PCET). Simple alcohols such as methanol are often used successfully in reductions with SmI2 but often have reduced reactivity. The basis for the change in reactivity of SmI2-H2O and SmI2-MeOH is not apparent given the modest differences between water and methanol. A combination of Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations and mechanistic experiments were performed to examine the differences between the reductants formed in situ for the SmI2-H2O and SmI2-MeOH systems. This work demonstrates that reduced coordination of MeOH to Sm(ii) results in a complex that reduces arenes through a sequential electron proton transfer at low concentrations and that this process is significantly slower than reduction by SmI2-H2O.
RESUMO
Water addition to Sm(II) has been shown to increase reactivity for both SmI2 and SmBr2. Previous work in our groups has demonstrated that this increase in reactivity can be attributed to coordination induced bond weakening enabling substrate reduction through proton-coupled electron transfer. The present work examines the interaction of water with samarium dichloride (SmCl2) and illustrates the importance of the Sm-X interaction and bond distance upon water addition critical for the reactivity of the reagent system. Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations identify substantial variations among the reductants created in solution upon water addition to SmI2, SmBr2, and SmCl2 with the latter showing the least halide dissociation. This results in a lower water coordination number for SmCl2, creating a more powerful reducing system. As previously shown with the other SmX2-water systems, coordination-induced bond-weakening of the O-H bond of water bound to Sm(II) results in significant bond weakening. In the case of SmCl2, the bond weakening is estimated to be in the range of 83 to 88.5 kcal/mol.