The industrialization
of alkene hydrosilylation catalyzed by cheap metals has become a research
hotspot in recent years. Recently, we have found that [P, C] chelate
cobalt(III) hydrides are active catalysts in the hydrosilylation of
alkenes, but in this catalytic system, the real catalyst is [HCo(PMe3)3], and the [P, C] chelate ligand was not involved
in the catalytic reaction. In this paper, to study the effect of the
[P, C] chelate ligand on the hydrosilylation of alkenes, a [P, C]
chelate cobalt(I) complex, [(Me3P)3Co(o-Ph2P-C6H4-CO)]
(1), was prepared and used as a catalyst for the hydrosilylation
of alkenes. To our surprise, it was found that complex 1 as a catalyst exhibits more efficient performance for the selective
hydrosilylation of alkenes compared with the related [P, C] chelate
cobalt(III) hydride, and the selectivity for aromatic alkenes is 100%
Markovnikov but the selectivity for aliphatic alkenes is almost 100% anti-Markovnikov. The catalytic conditions (2.5 h, 30 °C)
are very mild. For this catalytic system, the reaction activity of
aliphatic alkenes is greater than that of aromatic alkenes. In the
study of the catalytic mechanism, the intermediate with a coordinated
η2-(Si–H) bond is considered as a real catalyst.
The catalytic mechanism is proposed on the basis of experimental information
and literature reports.