The reactions of the nickel(0) complex [Ni(bipy)(COD)] (COD = cyclooctadiene, bipy =2,2'-bipyridine) with isoprene (ip) in the absence and presence of carbon dioxide wereinvestigated. A detailed kinetic analysis revealed that [Ni(bipy)(COD)] reacts reversiblewith ip and activation parameters for the forward and back reactions were calculated froma temperature dependence study to be the following:
H
= 35 ± 5 kJ/mol,
S
= -79 ± 16J/(mol K) forward reaction (ip dependence);
H
= 58 ± 2 kJ/mol,
S
= 58 ± 10 J/(mol K)back-reaction (COD dependence at low temperatures). It could be shown that CO
2 did notreact with [Ni(bipy)(COD)] directly but with the nickel ip complex to form the product complex((3-5-
3)-3-methyl-3-pentenylato)nickel bipyridine. The reaction proceeded in an associativeway, during which CO
2 was inserted into a Ni-C bond in an oxidative coupling step. Theactivation parameters were calculated to be
H
= 25 ± 7 kJ/mol and
S
= - 184 ± 24J/(mol K).