Bespoke Bimetallics for Chemical Cooperativity

Recent advances in main group metal chemistry have established cooperative bimetallic reagents, prepared by combining two different s-block metals with distinct polarising powers as a versatile family of organometallic reagents capable of delivering new chemistry irreproducible by either of their single-metal components.

 Extending bimetallic cooperativity to the sustainable transition metals Fe and Mn, this talk will describe new synthetic strategies to promote direct ferration and manganation reactions. This includes applying sodium tris(amido)ferrates for ferration and C-F bond activation of challenging fluoroarenes (see Scheme) as well as introducing the first examples of Mn-mediated C-I activation/C-C coupling tandem processes. These opening studies confirm the feasibility of using earth-abundant TM-based cooperative bimetallics to functionalise aromatic molecules, through transporting iron or manganese to positions inaccessible using other synthetic methodologies.