Influence of Copper(I) Halides on the Reactivity of Aliphatic Carbodiimides

The influence of copper(I) halides CuX (X = Cl, Br, I) on the electronic structure of N,N′-diisopropylcarbodiimide (DICDI) and N,N′-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) was investigated by means of computational DFT (density functional theory) methods. The coordination of the considered carbodiimides occurs by one of the nitrogen atoms, with the formation of linear complexes having a general formula of [CuX(carbodiimide)]. Besides varying the carbon–nitrogen bond lengths, the thermodynamically favourable interaction with Cu(I) reduces the electron density on the carbodiimides and alters the energies of the (NCN)-centred, unoccupied orbitals. A small dependence of these effects on the choice of the halide was observable. The computed Fukui functions suggested negligible interaction of Cu(I) with incoming nucleophiles, and the reactivity of carbodiimides was altered by coordination mainly because of the increased electrophilicity of the {NCN} fragments.