Rate constants for the attachment of CH(CN)
2- to Fischer carbene complexes of the type(CO)
5M=C(XR)C
6H
4Z with M = Cr, W and XR = OMe, OEt, SMe in 50% MeCN-50% water(v/v) at 25
C are reported. The malononitrile anion shows a much higher reactivity towardthese carbene complexes than OH
-, primary
aliphatic amines (e.g.
n-butylamine), orsecondary
alicyclic amines (e.g. piperidine) but is slightly less reactive than thiolate ions(e.g. HOCH
2CH
2S
-). The alkoxycarbene complexes react more quickly than the thiomethylderivatives, consistent with previous findings for alkoxide ion, OH
-, amine, and thiolateion nucleophiles. Hammett
values are 0.69 for the reaction with (CO)
5Cr=C(SMe)C
6H
4Zand 2.88 for the reaction with (CO)
5Cr=C(OMe)C
6H
4Z. The much larger
value for themethoxycarbene complexes fits a pattern observed previously with other nucleophiles andcan be explained by the
-donor effect of the methoxy group, which is much stronger thanthat of the thiomethyl group.