Metal-catalyzed decaborane-alkyne hydroboration reactions: efficient routes to alkenyldecaboranes.

Transition-metal-catalyzed decaborane-alkyne hydroboration reactions have been developed that provide high-yield routes to the previously unknown di- and monoalkenyldecaboranes. These alkenyl derivatives should be easily modified starting materials for many biomedical and/or materials applications. Unusual catalyst product selectivity was observed that suggests quite different mechanistic steps, with the reactions catalyzed by the [RuCl(2)(p-cymene)](2) and [Cp*IrCl(2)](2) complexes giving the beta-E alkenyldecaboranes and the corresponding reactions with the [RuI(2)(p-cymene)](2) complex giving the alpha-alkenyldecaborane isomers.