title: Catalytic alkane metathesis by tandem alkane dehydrogenation-olefin metathesis.
abstract: With petroleum supplies dwindling, there is increasing interest in selective methods for transforming other carbon feedstocks into hydrocarbons suitable for transportation fuel. We report the development of highly productive, well-defined, tandem catalytic systems for the metathesis of n-alkanes. Each system comprises one molecular catalyst (a "pincer"-ligated iridium complex) that effects alkane dehydrogenation and olefin hydrogenation, plus a second catalyst (molecular or solid-phase) for olefin metathesis. The systems all show complete selectivity for linear (n-alkane) product. We report one example that achieves selectivity with respect to the distribution of product molecular weights, in which n-decane is the predominant high-molecular-weight product of the metathesis of two moles of n-hexane.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. agoldman@rutchem.rutgers.edu
authors.forename: Alan S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Goldman
authors.forename: Amy H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Ritu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ahuja
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schinski
authors.forename: Maurice
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brookhart