Nitrene Metathesis and Catalytic Nitrene Transfer Promoted by Niobium Bis(imido) Complexes

Abstract

We report a metathesis reaction in which a nitrene fragment from an isocyanide ligand is exchanged with a nitrene fragment of an imido ligand in a series of niobium bis­(imido) complexes. One of these bis­(imido) complexes also promotes nitrene transfer to catalytically generate asymmetric dialkylcarbodiimides from azides and isocyanides in a process involving the Nb­(V)/Nb­(III) redox couple