Aza versus Oxophilicity of SmI2 : A Break of a Paradigm.

Ligands that coordinate to SmI2 through oxygen are prevalent in the literature and make up a significant portion of additives employed with the reagent to perform reactions of great synthetic importance. In the present work a series of spectroscopic, calorimetric and kinetic studies demonstrate that nitrogen-based analogues of many common additives have a significantly higher affinity for Sm than the oxygen-based counterparts. In addition, electrochemical experiments show that nitrogen-based ligands significantly enhance the reducing power of SmI2 . Overall, this work demonstrates that the use of nitrogen-based ligands provides a useful alternative approach to enhance the reactivity of reductants based on SmII .