Alkali‐Metal Aminotroponiminates: Selectivities and Equilibria in Reversible Radical Coupling of Delocalized π‐Electron Systems

Aminotroponiminates (ATIs) have recently been shown to belong to the growing class of redox-active ligands. The choice of the metal center allowed to switch between reversible electron transfer (M=Rh) and reductively induced dimerization (M=Na). Here, we investigate if the reductively induced dimerization of ATIs is a more general phenomenon for their alkali-metal complexes. Lithium ATI complexes are shown to undergo reductively induced dimerizations, which are equilibrium reactions and chemically reversible. The choice of the metal center (Li vs. Na), the substitution pattern at the nitrogen atoms of the ATI ligands, and the solvent critically influence the regioselectivity and diastereoselectivity of the radical-dimerization reactions. Potassium ATIs are shown to be susceptible to side reactions, more specifically a reduction accompanied by hydrogen-atom transfer. Products and intermediates of the reductively induced dimerizations were characterized by techniques including NMR and EPR spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, DFT calculations, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and mass spectrometry.