Reaction of a hydroxopalladium complex bearing the Tp
iPr2 ligand, (Tp
iPr2)(py)Pd-OH (
1iPr2),with active methylene compounds, X-CH
2-Y
2 [dicyanomethane (
2a), methyl cyanoacetate(
2b), benzoylacetonitrile (
2c)], resulted in dehydrative condensation to afford the N/O-boundenolates, (Tp
iPr2)(py)Pd-X-CH-Y
3iPr2a-c. When the hydroxo complex
1Me2 with the lessbulky Tp
Me2 ligand was allowed to react with
2 at 0
C, similar N/O-bound enolato complexes,(Tp
Me2)(py)Pd-X-CH-Y (
3Me2a-
c), were obtained as kinetic products, which were graduallyconverted to the more stable C-bound enolato complexes (Tp
Me2)(py)Pd-CHXY (
4Me2a-
c)upon warming to 50
C. X-ray crystallography of the N/O- and C-bound enolates revealsthat (1) the Pd center adopts the square-planar or square-pyramidal geometry, (2) thestructure of the C-bound isomer is consistent with the canonical structure with the localizedbonding scheme, and (3) in the N/O-bound isomers the negative charge is delocalized overthe X-CH-Y linkage to form the zwitterionic structure. The N-bound enolato complexes
3a,
b obtained from cyano compounds further reacted with the cyano compounds to give the1:2 condensates: i.e., the 2-cyanoethenylamido complexes (Tp
R)(py)Pd-NH-C(CH
2Y)=CCN(Y) (
6), whereas the C-bound enolates
4Me2a,b showed no indication of the dimerization.Thus, the present study reveals that the reactivity of transition-metal enolates is dependenton their structures.