All-metal aromatic complexes show high reactivity in the oxidation reaction of methane and some hydrocarbons.
The C-H activations of methane, ethane, propane, and propene catalyzed by all-metal aromatic complexes Al(4)Fe were investigated. The results reveal that the rate-determining barrier of methane activation reaction with Al(4)Fe is lower than that of both some well-known inorganic catalysts and some metal organic catalysts. It was found that the all-metal aromatic complexes have high reactivity for the C-H activation of ethane, propane, and propene. Further research showed that the ability of all-metal aromatic complex to accept an electron and the degree of electron delocalization on its aromatic plane had obvious influences on the reactivity of Al(4)Fe. The present work predicts a new kind of catalyst for the alkyl C-H activation reaction: all-metal aromatic catalyst.
Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China.
Xingbang
X
Hu
Haoran
H
Li