Microwave Irradiation Effect on the Ligand Exchange Reaction between Ferrocene and Heterocycles

The ligand exchange reaction is a typical reaction of ferrocenes. This reaction proceeds via the abstraction of a cyclopentadienyl ring by a Lewis acid followed by coordination of an aromatic compound to the resulting species. This reaction with conventional heating requires a long reaction time. Furthermore, the reactions with heterocycles are lower than those with the corresponding hydrocarbons, and do not produce any products in some cases. In this paper, the ligand exchange reaction of ferrocene and a heterocyclic aromatic compound during microwave irradiation and its effect are discussed. As a result, for some heterocycles, the decrease in the reaction time was confirmed. Furthermore, under the microwave irradiation conditions, the tendency in which the difference in their reactivities became low was confirmed.