Effective Room Temperature Hydrogenation of Alkenes by X-Ray Characterized Salicylaldimine-Rhodium(I) Complex

Abstract

In the study, a mononuclear X-ray characterized Rh(I) complex with salicylidene (salhyd) and cyclooctadiene (cod) ligands was synthesized. The synthesized complex was used as homogenous hydrogenation catalyst of styrene, 1-octene and cyclohexene in several organic solvents at ambient temperature. Up to 400 n(s)/n(cat) ratio and 521 TON/TOF values were obtained with 100 % product formation for styrene and 96.7 % n-octane and isomers (2-octene and 3-octene) at room temperature in one-hour reaction time. Molecular hydrogen was used as hydrogen source, and the best activity was observed in dimethyl sulfoxide. Due to the high effectivity of synthesized catalyst at room temperature, the designed system became attractive on homogenous hydrogenation for selected olefins.