The Non-innocent Phenalenyl Unit: An Electronic Nest to Modulate the Catalytic Activity in Hydroamination Reaction

The phenalenyl unit has played intriguing role in different fields of research spanning from chemistry, material chemistry to device physics acting as key electronic reservoir which has not only led to the best organic single component conductor but also created the spin memory device of next generation. Now we show the non-innocent behaviour of phenalenyl unit in modulating the catalytic behaviour in a homogeneous organic transformation. The present study establishes that the cationic state of phenalenyl unit can act as an organic Lewis acceptor unit to influence the catalytic outcome of intermolecular hydroamination reaction of carbodiimides. For the present study, we utilized organoaluminum complexes of phenalenyl ligands in which the phenalenyl unit maintains the closed shell electronic state. The DFT calculation reveals that the energy of LUMO of the catalyst is mainly controlled by phenalenyl ligands which in turn determines the outcome of the catalysis.