Methane oxidative addition

Rest and Graham reported in 1984 that the metal carbonyl complexes CpRh(CO)2, CpIr(CO)2, and Cp Ir(CO)2 can be deposited in methane matrices at 12 K and irradiated to give the corresponding methane oxidative addition products [28]. In addition, the dihydride CpIr(CO)H2 could be irradiated in a methane/argon matrix to generate CpIr(CO)(CH3)H by an alternative route [29]. While the dicarbonyl compounds were not efficient producers of the coordinatively unsaturated intermediate, Perutz found that CpRh(CO)(C2H4) lost... 

Over the past 15 years, many theoretical treatments of C-H activation have appeared. Early work by Hoffmann addressed qualitative orbital approaches to C-H activation by CpML fragments [52]. More quantitative approaches have appeared recently for the addition of methane to the [CpRh(CO)] fragment [53— 56]. These more recent calculations provide support for the presence of methane a-complexes along the reaction coordinate for methane oxidative addition, and confirm the weak nature of the interaction between the metal center and the C-H sigma bond ( 20 kj mol-1). A more detailed comparison of these results is beyond the scope of this chapter. 

SCHEME 11.33 Comparison of calculated energetics for methane oxidative addition to CpRe(CO)2 and TpRe(CO)2 (energies given in kcal/mol). 

The process can be operated in two modes co-fed and redox. The co-fed mode employs addition of O2 to the methane/natural gas feed and subsequent conversion over a metal oxide catalyst. The redox mode requires the oxidant to be from the lattice oxygen of a reducible metal oxide in the reactor bed. After methane oxidation has consumed nearly all the lattice oxygen, the reduced metal oxide is reoxidized using an air stream. Both methods have processing advantages and disadvantages. In all cases, however, the process is mn to maximize production of the more desired ethylene product. 

Carbon-carbon bond formation reactions and the CH activation of methane are another example where NHC complexes have been used successfully in catalytic applications. Palladium-catalysed reactions include Heck-type reactions, especially the Mizoroki-Heck reaction itself [171-175], and various cross-coupling reactions [176-182]. They have also been found useful for related reactions like the Sonogashira coupling [183-185] or the Buchwald-Hartwig amination [186-189]. The reactions are similar concerning the first step of the catalytic cycle, the oxidative addition of aryl halides to palladium(O) species. This is facilitated by electron-donating substituents and therefore the development of highly active catalysts has focussed on NHC complexes. 

The mechanism for the reaction catalyzed by cationic palladium complexes (Scheme 24) differs from that proposed for early transition metal complexes, as well as from that suggested for the reaction shown in Eq. 17. For this catalyst system, the alkene substrate inserts into a Pd - Si bond a rather than a Pd-H bond [63]. Hydrosilylation of methylpalladium complex 100 then provides methane and palladium silyl species 112 (Scheme 24). Complex 112 coordinates to and inserts into the least substituted olefin regioselectively and irreversibly to provide 113 after coordination of the second alkene. Insertion into the second alkene through a boat-like transition state leads to trans cyclopentane 114, and o-bond metathesis (or oxidative addition/reductive elimination) leads to the observed trans stereochemistry of product 101a with regeneration of 112 [69]. 

The facial complexes (PMe3)3lr(CH3)(H)(SiR3), (55), (R = EtO, Ph, Et) result from the oxidative addition of the corresponding silane to MeIr(PMe3)4.69 On heating (55) in which R = OEt and Ph, reductive elimination of methane forms iridasilacycles, as shown in reaction Scheme 6. The structure of compound (55) in which R = Ph is confirmed by single-crystal diffraction studies. 

Goetschel, C. T. et al., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 1969, 91, 4706 It is a very powerful oxidant, addition of a small particle to small samples of benzene or 2-propanol at ambient temperature causing ignition. A mixture prepared at — 196° C with either methane or ethane exploded when the temperature was raised to —78°C. See other oxidants... 

Actually, a similar approach was used in studying the oxidative addition of methane to an iridium complex. Hydrocarbon solvents would have reacted faster than methane with the photochemically produced unsaturated iridium species, therefore J.K. Hoyano et al chose perfluorinated hexane as being an inert solvent. The elevated pressure was necessary in order to increase the concentration of the methane in the solution sufficiently to shift equilibrium (15) to the right /20/. 

The observation of extremely facile formation of an acetyl complex and the finding that oxidative addition is the rate-determining step are almost certainly related to the high selectivity observed in the reaction. Thus, the extremely short lifetime of any CH3—Rh species makes it unlikely that it would be reacted off to methane in the presence of hydrogen (and/or metal hydrides). 

The proposed mechanism starts with a methyl group abstraction on platinum complex 416 with the borane reagent in the presence of diyne 414 (Scheme 105). The square-planar cationic diyne-platinum(n) complex 417 is converted to the octahedral platinum(rv) hydride intermediate 418 through oxidative addition of the hydrosilane. This complex decomposes rapidly with methane release to form another tetracoordinated platinum(n) species 419, followed by platinasilylation of the triple bond. The resulting vinylplatinum 420 undergoes an intramolecular carboplatination to... 

The question of which pathway is preferred was very recently addressed for several diimine-chelated platinum complexes (93). It was convincingly shown for dimethyl complexes chelated by a variety of diimines that the metal is the kinetic site of protonation. In the system under investigation, acetonitrile was used as the trapping ligand L (see Fig. 1) which reacted with the methane complex B to form the elimination product C and also reacted with the five-coordinate alkyl hydride species D to form the stable six-coordinate complex E (93). An increase in the concentration of acetonitrile led to increased yields of the methyl (hydrido)platinum(IV) complex E relative to the platinum(II) product C. It was concluded that the equilibration between the species D and B and the irreversible and associative1 reactions of these species with acetonitrile occur at comparable rates such that the kinetic product of the protonation is more efficiently trapped at higher acetonitrile concentrations. Thus, in these systems protonation occurs preferentially at platinum and, by the principle of microscopic reversibility, this indicates that C-H activation with these systems occurs preferentially via oxidative addition (93). 

Fig. 4. Relevant structures for the discussion of methane activation by (bipyrimi-dine)PtCl2 Methane complex of Pt(II) (A) methyl(hydrido)platinum(IV) complex, the product of the oxidative addition (B) transition state for intramolecular deprotonation of the methane complex ( cr-bond metathesis , sometimes also called electrophilic , C) intermolecular deprotonation of the methane complex ( electrophilic pathway , D).

In a study of the methane complex [(diimine)Pt(CH3)(CH4)]+ (diimine = HN=C(H)-C(H)=NH), relevant to the diimine system experimentally investigated by Tilset et al. (28), theoretical calculations indicate preference for the oxidative addition pathway (30). When one water molecule was included in these calculations, the preference for oxidative addition increased due to the stabilization of Pt(IV) by coordinated water (30). The same preference for oxidative addition was previously calculated for the ethylenediamine (en) system [(en)Pt(CH3)(CH4)]+ (151). This model is relevant for the experimentally investigated tmeda system [(tmeda)Pt(CH3)(solv)]+ discussed above (Scheme 7, B) (27,152). For the bis-formate complex Pt(02CH)2, a a-bond metathesis was assumed and the energies of intermediates and transition states were calculated... 

Phosphine complexes are generally regarded more electron-rich than the corresponding ammine complexes, and which pathway is preferred under these electronic conditions has also been investigated. For trans-PtCl2(PH3)2, oxidative addition has been calculated to be much more favorable than the electrophilic pathway for the activation of methane... 

In this chapter, we will study the elementary reaction steps of these mechanisms focusing primarily on the anthraphos systems. This chapter begins with a description of the impact of different methods (coupled cluster, configuration interaction and various DFT functionals), different basis sets, and phosphine substituents on the oxidative addition of methane to a related Ir system, [CpIr(III)(PH3)Me]+. Then, it compares the elementary reaction steps, including the effect of reaction conditions such as temperature, hydrogen pressure, alkane and alkene concentration, phosphine substituents and alternative metals (Rh). Finally, it considers how these elementary steps constitute the reaction mechanisms. Additional computational details are provided at the end of the chapter. 

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