“…Materials. Ln(C 5 H 5 ) 3 (Ln = Y, La, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Er, Yb, Lu), (C 5 H 5 ) 2 Co, TiCl 2 (C 5 H 5 ) 2 , ZrCl 2 (C 5 H 5 ) 2 , [(C 8 H 12 )RhCl] 2 , (C 8 H 12 ) 2 PdCl 2 , (C 5 H 5 ) 2 YbCl, and (C 5 H 5 ) YbCl 2 18 were prepared with the established methods. Commercial samples of Mn(acac) 3 , Ph 4 Sn, CaI 2 , Y(OiPr) 3 , Y(O 2 CC 10 H 7 ) 3 , Sm(acac) 3 , Sm(OiPr) 3 , Y 2 O 3 , and Yb 2 O 3 were purchased from Strem Chemicals Inc. F400 (Filtrasorb 400) activated carbon was purchased from Toyo Cargone (BET surface area, 946 m 2 /g, mesopore ratio 9.7%, averaged pore size 24.0 Å, powder size 0.9−1.1 mm; its origin is bituminoous coal).…”