Entrapment of an organometallic complex within a metal: a concept for heterogeneous catalysis

A novel family of composite materials, organically doped metals, has been recently introduced. Here, we demonstrate their use as a new platform for heterogeneous catalysis, namely the doping of a metal with a catalytic organometallic complex. Specifically, a rhodium(I) catalyst, (RhCl(COD)(Ph2P(C6H4SO3Na))), ([Rh]), was physically entrapped within silver, thus creating a new type of catalytic material: [Rh]@Ag. Several aspects were demonstrated with the development of this heterogeneous catalyst: a metal can be used as a support for heterogenizing a homogeneous catalyst; the homogeneous catalyst is stabilized by the entrapment within the metal; the products of the composite catalyst are different compared to those obtained from the homogeneous one; and the adsorption of [Rh] on the surface of Ag and its entrapment are very different processes only the latter provided appreciable catalytic activity. Thus, while homogeneous [Rh] was entirely destroyed after converting styrene to ethylbenzne at 50%, [Rh]@Ag remained active after effecting the same reaction to a yield of 85% (compared to only 7% for [Rh] adsorbed on Ag), and while homogeneous [Rh] hydrogenated diphenylacetylene to bibenzyl (and was completely deactivated after one cycle) with no trace of cis-stilbene, [Rh]@Ag afforded that compound as the main product and could be reused.