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Published on: August 17, 2018
Main-group compounds selectively activate natural gas alkanes under room temperature and atmospheric pressure
Runbo Pei1,2, Wenju Chang3, Liancheng He1,2
1State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Abstract:
Most C-H bond activations of natural gas alkanes rely on transition metal complexes. Activations by using main-group systems have been reported but required heating or photo-irradiation under high atmospheric pressure with rather low regioselectivity. Here we report that Lewis acid-carbene adducts facilely undergo oxidative additions to C-H bonds of ethane, propane and n-butane with high selectivity under room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The Lewis acids can be moved by the addition of a base and the carbene-derived products can be easily converted into aldehydes. This work offers a route for main-group element compounds to selectively functionalise C-H bonds of natural gas alkanes and other small molecules.
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