Carbon—carbon and carbon—nitrogen bond formation reactions catalyzed by the magnesium and calcium acenaphthene-1,2-diimine complexes

A mixture of allylbromide and diphenylacetonitrile is reduced to afford 2,2-diphenylpentene-4-nitrile as a major product in the presence of catalytic amounts of the magnesium complex (dpp-bian)Mg(thf)3 (dpp-bian is 1,2-bis[(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imino]acenaphthene dianion). The overall conversion of nitrile is 71% within 3 h at 85 °С. 4,4-Diphenylbutene-1 and diphenylmethane are by-products in this process. Complexes (dpp-bian)Mg(thf)3 and (dpp-bian)Ca(thf)4 (in an amount of 0.5—5 mol.%) catalyze the intramolecular hydroamination of some aminopentenes and aminohexenes with the conversion from 67 to 99%.