Diverse reactivity of an iron-aluminium complex with substituted pyridines.

The reaction of an Fe-Al complex with an array of substituted pyridines is reported. Depending on the substitution pattern of the substrate site-selective sp2 or sp3 C-H bond activation is observed. A series of reaction products are observed based on (i) C-Al bond formation, (ii) C-C bond formation by nucleophilic addition or (iii) deprotonation of the β-diketiminate ligand. A divergent set of mechanisms involving a common intermediate is proposed.