Alkane metathesis with the tantalum methylidene [(≡SiO)Ta(═CH2)Me2]/[(≡SiO)2Ta(═CH2)Me] generated from well-defined surface organometallic complex [(≡SiO)Ta(V)Me4]

Yin Chen; Edy Abou-hamad; Ali Hamieh; Bilel Hamzaoui; Lyndon Emsley; Jean-Marie Basset

doi:10.1021/ja5113468

Alkane metathesis with the tantalum methylidene [(≡SiO)Ta(═CH2)Me2]/[(≡SiO)2Ta(═CH2)Me] generated from well-defined surface organometallic complex [(≡SiO)Ta(V)Me4]

J Am Chem Soc. 2015 Jan 21;137(2):588-91. doi: 10.1021/ja5113468. Epub 2015 Jan 5.

Authors

Yin Chen¹, Edy Abou-hamad, Ali Hamieh, Bilel Hamzaoui, Lyndon Emsley, Jean-Marie Basset

Affiliation

¹ Physical Sciences and Engineering, KAUST Catalysis Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 25557135
DOI: 10.1021/ja5113468

Abstract

By grafting TaMe5 on Aerosil700, a stable, well-defined, silica-supported tetramethyl tantalum(V) complex, [(≡SiO)TaMe4], is obtained on the silica surface. After thermal treatment at 150 °C, the complex is transformed into two surface tantalum methylidenes, [(≡SiO)2Ta(═CH2)Me] and [(≡SiO)Ta(═CH2)Me2], which are active in alkane metathesis and comparable to the previously reported [(≡SiO)2TaHx]. Here we present the first experimental study to isolate and identify a surface tantalum carbene as the intermediate in alkane metathesis. A systematic experimental study reveals a new reasonable pathway for this reaction.