skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Femtosecond IR studies of alkane C-H bond activation

Conference ·
OSTI ID:539063
; ;  [1]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States); and others

In this paper, we report the first femtosecond time resolved IR spectroscopic study of the mechanism of alkane C-H bond activation reaction by organometallic compounds. Taking advantage of the high C-H bond activation quantum yield of Tp*Rh(CO){sub 2} (Tp*=HB-Pz{sub 3}*, Pz*=3,5- dimethylpyrazolyl), we have observed two subsequently formed reactive monocarbonyl intermediates in room temperature alkane solution. We assign the intermediate at 1972 cm{sup -1} as an initially formed solvated complex which then undergoes intramolecular rearrangement in 200 ps to form a more stable solvated species at 1990 cm{sup -1}. This latter complex may be the commonly invoked {sigma}-complex, which goes on to activate the C-H bond in ca. 500 ns, corresponding to a free energy of activation {Delta}G{ne}= 8.9 kcal/mol. Both the detailed structures of the intermediates and the bond selectivity of C-H activation reactions are being studied in on-going experiments.

OSTI ID:
539063
Report Number(s):
CONF-960807-; TRN: 97:004029-0132
Resource Relation:
Conference: 212. national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Orlando, FL (United States), 25-30 Aug 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of 212th ACS national meeting; PB: 1830 p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English