Catalytic cleavage of strong bonds including hydrogen-hydrogen, carbon-oxygen, and carbonhydrogen bonds is a highly desired yet challenging fundamental transformation for the production of chemicals and fuels. Transition metal-containing catalysts are employed, although accompanied with poor selectivity in hydrotreatment. Here we report metal-free nitrogen-assembly carbons (NACs) with closely-placed graphitic nitrogen as active sites, achieving dihydrogen dissociation and subsequent transformation of oxygenates. NACs exhibit high selectivity towards alkylarenes for hydrogenolysis of aryl ethers as model biooxygenates without over-hydrogeneration of arenes. Activities originate from cooperating graphitic nitrogen dopants induced by the diamine precursors, as demonstrated in mechanistic and computational studies. We further show that the NAC catalyst is versatile for dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene and tetrahydroquinoline as well as for hydrogenation of common unsaturated functionalities, including ketone, alkene, alkyne, and nitro groups. The discovery of nitrogen assembly as active sites can open up broad opportunities for rational design of new metal-free catalysts for challenging chemical reactions.
Many transition metals commonly encountered in inorganic materials and organometallic compounds possess NMR-active nuclei with very low gyromagnetic ratios (γ) such as Y,Rh, Ag, andW. A low-γ leads to poor NMR sensitivity and other experimental challenges. Consequently, nuclei with low-γ are often impossible to study with conventional solid-state NMR methods. Here, we combine fast magic angle spinning (MAS) and proton detection to enhance the sensitivity of solid-state NMR experiments with very low-γ nuclei by 1-2 orders of magnitude. Coherence transfer between H and low-γ nuclei was performed with low-power double quantum (DQ) or zero quantum (ZQ) cross-polarization (CP) or dipolar refocused insensitive nuclei enhanced by polarization transfer (D-RINEPT). Comparison of the absolute sensitivity of CP NMR experiments performed with proton detection with 1.3 mm rotors and direct detection with 4 mm rotors shows that proton detection with a 1.3 mm rotor provides a significant boost in absolute sensitivity, while requiring approximately 1/40 of the material required to fill a 4 mm rotor. Fast MAS and proton detection were applied to obtain Y andRh solid-state NMR spectra of organometallic complexes. These results demonstrate that proton detection and fast MAS represents a general approach to enable and accelerate solid-state NMR experiments with very low-γ nuclei.
An electrophilic, coordinatively unsaturated rhodium complex supported by borate-linked oxazoline, oxazoline-coordinated silylene, and N-heterocyclic carbene donors [{κ(3)-N,Si,C-PhB(Ox(Me2))(Ox(Me2)SiHPh)Im(Mes)}Rh(H)CO][HB(C6F5)3] (, Ox(Me2) = 4,4-dimethyl-2-oxazoline; Im(Mes) = 1-mesitylimidazole) is synthesized from the neutral rhodium silyl {PhB(Ox(Me2))2Im(Mes)}RhH(SiH2Ph)CO () and B(C6F5)3. The unusual oxazoline-coordinated silylene structure in is proposed to form by rearrangement of an unobserved isomeric cationic rhodium silylene species [{PhB(Ox(Me2))2Im(Mes)}RhH(SiHPh)CO][HB(C6F5)3] generated by H abstraction. Complex catalyzes reductions of organic carbonyl compounds with silanes to give hydrosilylation products or deoxygenation products. The pathway to these reactions is primarily influenced by the degree of substitution of the organosilane. Reactions with primary silanes give deoxygenation of esters to ethers, amides to amines, and ketones and aldehydes to hydrocarbons, whereas tertiary silanes react to give 1,2-hydrosilylation of the carbonyl functionality. In contrast, the strong Lewis acid B(C6F5)3 catalyzes the complete deoxygenation of carbonyl compounds to hydrocarbons with PhSiH3 as the reducing agent.
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