Understanding the Origins of Nucleophilic Hydride Reactivity of a Sodium Hydride-Iodide Composite

Zonghan Hong, Derek Yiren Ong, Subas Kumar Muduli, Pei Chui Too, Guo Hao Chan, Ya Lin Tnay, Shunsuke Chiba*, Yusuke Nishiyama*, Hajime Hirao*, Han Sen Soo*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

43 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Sodium hydride (NaH) has been commonly used as a Brønsted base in chemical syntheses, while it has rarely been employed to add hydride (H-) to unsaturated electrophiles. We previously developed a procedure to activate NaH through the addition of a soluble iodide source and found that the new NaH-NaI composite can effect even stereoselective nucleophilic hydride reductions of nitriles, imines, and carbonyl compounds. In this work, we report that mixing NaH with NaI or LiI in tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a solvent provides a new inorganic composite, which consists of NaI interspersed with activated NaH, as revealed by powder X-ray diffraction, and both solid-state NMR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. DFT calculations imply that this remarkably simple inorganic composite, which is comprised of NaH and NaI, gains nucleophilic hydridic character similar to covalent hydrides, resulting in unprecedented and unique hydride donor chemical reactivity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7108-7114
JournalChemistry - A European Journal
Volume22
Issue number21
Online published1 Apr 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 May 2016
Externally publishedYes

Research Keywords

  • density functional calculations
  • NMR spectroscopy
  • sodium hydride-iodide composite
  • X-ray diffraction
  • X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

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