Direct Observation of Reactive Intermediates by Time-Resolved Spectroscopy Unravels the Mechanism of a Radical-Induced 1,2-Metallate Rearrangement

Radical-induced 1,2-metallate rearrangements of boronate complexes are an emerging and promising class of reactions that allow multiple new bonds to be formed in a single, tuneable reaction step. These reactions involve the addition of an alkyl radical, typically generated from an alkyl iodide under photochemical activation, to a boronate complex to produce an α-boryl radical intermediate. From this α-boryl radical, there are two plausible reaction pathways that can trigger the product forming 1,2-metallate rearrangement: iodine atom transfer (IAT) or single electron transfer (SET). Previous steady state techniques have struggled to differentiate these pathways. Here we apply state-of-the-art time-resolved infrared absorption spectroscopy to resolve all the steps in the reaction cycle, by mapping production and consumption of the reactive intermediates over picosecond to millisecond timescales. We apply this technique to a recently reported reaction involving the addition of an electron-deficient alkyl radical to the strained σ‑bond of a bicyclo[1.1.0]butyl boronate complex to form a cyclobutyl boronic ester. We show that the previously proposed SET mechanism does not adequately account for the observed spectral and kinetic data. Instead, we demonstrate that IAT is the preferred pathway for this reaction and is likely to be operative for other reactions of this type.