Computational study of the boraformylation of allenes catalyzed by copper complexes

The bifunctionalization of allenes is a powerful tool with potential for generating many pharmaceuticals, natural products, and biologically active molecules. In this study, theoretical calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT) were used to investigate the mechanism involved in the boraformylation of propadiene catalyzed by an active copper complex bearing a bulky phosphine group as an ancillary ligand. The process was characterized by a four-step mechanism, in which the transition state with the highest energy is that one associated with the substrate addition to the active catalyst, while the largest energy barrier is found to the beta-elimination step. In addition, the non-covalent interaction (NCI) analysis performed over all the transition states unveiled the importance of non-covalent interactions to the entire reaction mechanism.