Highly active bidentate N-heterocyclic carbene/ruthenium complexes performing dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols and hydroxides in open air

Zhi-Qin Wang; Xiao-Sheng Tang; Zhao-Qi Yang; Bao-Yi Yu; Hua-Jing Wang; Wei Sang; Ye Yuan; Cheng Chen; Francis Verpoort

doi:10.1039/c9cc03519b

Highly active bidentate N-heterocyclic carbene/ruthenium complexes performing dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols and hydroxides in open air

Chem Commun (Camb). 2019 Jul 18;55(59):8591-8594. doi: 10.1039/c9cc03519b.

Authors

Zhi-Qin Wang¹, Xiao-Sheng Tang², Zhao-Qi Yang³, Bao-Yi Yu⁴, Hua-Jing Wang⁵, Wei Sang¹, Ye Yuan⁵, Cheng Chen⁵, Francis Verpoort⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, 122 Luoshi Road, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China. chengchen@whut.edu.cn francis.verpoort@ghent.ac.kr and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, 122 Luoshi Road, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China.
² Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Technology and Systems (Ministry of Education) College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, P. R. China.
³ School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture (North China), Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beinong Road 7, Beijing 102206, P. R. China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, 122 Luoshi Road, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China. chengchen@whut.edu.cn francis.verpoort@ghent.ac.kr.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, 122 Luoshi Road, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China. chengchen@whut.edu.cn francis.verpoort@ghent.ac.kr and National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Lenin Avenue 30, Tomsk 634050, Russian Federation and Ghent University Global Campus, 119 Songdomunhwa-Ro, Yeonsu-Gu, Incheon 21985, Korea.

PMID: 31276134
DOI: 10.1039/c9cc03519b

Abstract

Eight bidentate NHC/Ru complexes, namely [Ru]-1-[Ru]-8, were designed and prepared. In particular, [Ru]-2 displayed extraordinary performance even in open air for the dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols and hydroxides. Notably, an unprecedentedly low catalyst loading of 250 ppm and the highest TON of 32 800 and TOF of 3200 until now were obtained.