“All new is well-forgotten old”, the proverb goes. The current “fluorine boom” is news only to a novice in the field: the exceptional importance of fluorinated organic compounds in numerous areas has been known for a long time. The sharpest increase in the number of fluorine-containing pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals is dated back to 30 years ago. Also around that time (1979), the first monograph devoted to industrial applications of organofluorine compounds was published, covering not only fluorine-containing biologically active materials but also refrigerants, propellants, surfactants, textile chemicals, polymers, and dyes. The increasingly broad realization of the key role of organofluorine compounds in numerous areas has recently attracted many new scientists to the field. The development of new methods for the selective introduction of fluorine and fluorinecontaining groups into organic molecules for biologically active and other useful materials has become a hot area. Over 100 reviews, book chapters, and highlights on this subject have appeared in the literature in the past few years. As citing all of these publications in this review article is impossible, we provide references to only the most recent, general, and comprehensive ones. Molecules bearing a trifluoromethyl group constitute one of the most important classes of selectively fluorinated compounds. As early as 1928, Lehmann reported his observations of biological activity of some trifluoromethylated organic derivatives and already in 1959 Yale published a detailed review article entitled “The Trifluoromethyl Group in Medicinal Chemistry”. Since then, numerous books and reviews have appeared in the literature covering various aspects of trifluoromethylated organic and organometallic compounds. Within this family, derivatives bearing the CF3 group on aromatic rings are particularly numerous and important. Some examples of such compounds used as active ingredients of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals are shown in Scheme 1. Trifluoromethylated building blocks and intermediates are clearly needed to make such molecules. The simplest trifluoromethylated aromatic compound, benzotrifluoride, was originally prepared by Swarts at the end of the 19th century. In his work, Swarts treated benzotrichloride with “two thirds of its weight of antimony fluoride” to obtain a mixture of PhCF2Cl and PhCF3, from which the two were separated and isolated pure by distillation. In the early 1930s, two industrial groups, one from Kinetic Chemicals, Inc. and one from I. G. Farbenindustrie AG patented their discoveries on the successful use of HF instead of SbF3 for the Swarts reaction. These inventions were the starting point for the modern large-scale manufacturing of trifluoromethylated aromatics. Other methods have been developed for conversion of various C1 units on the ring to CF3 with a variety of fluorinating agents. While representing an outstanding discovery and a classic of organic and organofluorine chemistry, the Swarts reaction is nonetheless neither atom-economical nor environmentally benign, as it deals with stoichiometric quantities of hazardous chemicals and generates large amounts of chlorine waste. To convert a CH3 group on the ring to CF3, the methyl is first exhaustively chlorinated to produce 3 equiv of HCl as a

Aromatic Trifluoromethylation with Metal Complexes

numerous polyethylene or polypropylene compounds have been synthesized by metal-catalyzed coordination-insertion polymerization. On the other hand, organometallic catalysts * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nozaki@chembio.t.utokyo.ac.jp. Akifumi Nakamura (left) was born in 1984 in Kanagawa, Japan. He received his B.S. degree in 2007 and M.S. degree in 2009 from the University of Tokyo under the guidance of Professor Kyoko Nozaki. During that time he joined Professor Keiji Morokuma’s group at Kyoto University as a visiting student. In 2009, he started his Ph.D. study at the University of Tokyo under the guidance of Professor Kyoko Nozaki. He is also a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. His research interests include synthetic organic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, computational chemistry, and polymer chemistry.

Coordination−Insertion Copolymerization of Fundamental Polar Monomers

Oxidative Addition Reactions of Organoplatinum(II) Complexes with Nitrogen-Donor Ligands.

The protonolysis mechanisms of several alkylplatinum(II) complexes [(tmeda)PtMeCl (2) (tmeda = N,N,N‘,N‘-tetramethylethylenediamine), (tmeda)Pt(CH2Ph)Cl (5), (tmeda)PtMe2 (11), and trans-(PEt3)2Pt(CH3)Cl (15)] in CD2Cl2 and CD3OD have been investigated. These reactions model the microscopic reverse of C−H activation by aqueous Pt(II). Each of the four systems (2 in CD3OD, 5 in CD2Cl2, 11 in CD3OD, and 15 in CD3OD) exhibits different behavior in the protonolysis reaction as observed by low-temperature 1H NMR spectroscopy. Protonolysis of 2 in methanol-d4 proceeds with no observable intermediates. Reversible reaction between 5 and HCl in CD2Cl2 at −78 °C produces (tmeda)Pt(CH2Ph)(H)Cl2 (6), which undergoes reductive elimination of toluene at higher temperatures. Treatment of 11 with HCl in methanol at −78 °C generates (tmeda)PtMe2(H)Cl (12), which incorporates deuterium from solvent (CD3OD) into the methyl groups prior to reductive elimination of methane. Finally, 15 reacts with H+ in methanol to liberate m...

Exploring the Mechanism of Aqueous C−H Activation by Pt(II) through Model Chemistry: Evidence for the Intermediacy of Alkylhydridoplatinum(IV) and Alkane σ-Adducts

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses metal–isocyanide chemistry. In the interim, reviews have appeared on specific aspects of isocyanide chemistry. The generally accepted valence bond and molecular orbital (MO) approach to the bonding of metal isocyanides has been well described in Treichel's review, and has been used to rationalize variations in infrared (IR) stretching frequencies between bonded and nonbonded isocyanides and the better π-acceptor qualities of aryl versus alkyl isocyanide groups. A number of new synthetic routes to isocyanide complexes of chromium, molybdenum, and tungsten have been investigated. A number of attempts have been made over the years to develop reproducible synthetic routes to six- and seven-coordinate isocyanide complexes of molybdenum and tungsten. A number of routes have been employed for the synthesis of metal–isocyanide complexes by generating the isocyanide ligand on the metal atom. A number of monomeric complexes have been prepared, which may be considered as substitution products of the [Co(CNR) 5 ] + and [M(CNR) 4 ] + cations. Electrochemical investigations have been reported on a range of homoleptic and mixed carbonyl–isocyanide complexes, in attempts to rationalize substituent effects on the isocyanide with the electronic structure of the metal. Insertion reactions of isonitriles into metal–alkyl or metal–aryl bonds are now well established, occurring with metal–alkyl or –aryl groups from group IVA to IB and, recently, with uranium and thorium carbon bonds.

L.E. Manzer

Papers

Reactions of (π-1,5-cyclooctadiene) organoplatinum(II) compounds and the synthesis of perfluoroalkylplatinum complexes

Oxidative addition, reductive elemination, and isomerization reactions of organoplatinum complexes

Some reactions of iridium(III) cations with unsaturated ligands: formation of carbene and iminoether complexes

1H Nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of some cationic platinum(II) carbene complexes