No abstract

The germanium alkyne analogue Ar'GeGeAr' (1, Ar' = C6H3-2,6(C6H3-2,6-Pri2)2) reacts with 1, 2, or 3 equiv of dihydrogen at room temperature, and at 1 atm pressure, to afford a mixture of the products Ar'HGeGeHAr' (2), Ar'H2GeGeH2Ar' (3), or Ar'GeH3 (4). The relative amounts of each product are governed by the number of equivalents of hydrogen used. A mechanism for the initial step in the reaction is proposed. The appearance of 4 among the reaction products was accounted for in terms of either its dissociation to monomers or isomerization to the bridged Ar'Ge(mu-H)2GeAr'. The reactions were monitored by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The products 2, 3, and 4 were characterized by X-ray crystallography, and 4 was synthesized independently by the reduction of Ar'Ge(OMe)3. These reactions represent the first direct addition of hydrogen to a closed shell unsaturated main group compound under ambient conditions.

C–H bond formation with CO2 to selectively form products such as formate (HCOO–) is an important step in harnessing CO2 emissions as a carbon-neutral or carbon-negative renewable energy source. In this report, we show that the iron carbonyl cluster, [Fe4N­(CO)12]−, is an electrocatalyst for the selective reduction of CO2 to formate in water (pH 5–13). With low applied overpotential (230–440 mV), formate is produced with a high current density of 4 mA cm–2 and 96% Faradaic efficiency. These metrics, combined with the long lifetime of the catalyst (>24 h), and the use of the Earth-abundant material iron, are advances in catalyst performance relative to previously reported homogeneous and heterogeneous formate-producing electrocatalysts. We further characterized the mechanism of catalysis by [Fe4N­(CO)12]− using cyclic voltammetry, and structurally characterized a key reaction intermediate, the reduced hydride [HFe4N­(CO)12]−. In addition, thermochemical measurements performed using infrared spectroelectrochemistry provided measures of the hydride donor ability (hydricity) for [HFe4N­(CO)12]− in both MeCN and aqueous buffered solution. These are 49 and 15 kcal mol–1, respectively, and show that the driving force for C–H bond formation with CO2 by [HFe4N­(CO)12]− is very different in the two solvents: +5 kcal mol–1 in MeCN (unfavorable) and −8.5 kcal mol–1 in water (favorable).

The pure I(h) isomer of Sc3N@C80 was allowed to react with N-triphenylmethyl-5-oxazolidinone via the corresponding azomethine ylide. The reaction results in the formation of two monoadducts; one (1b) is the kinetic product, and the other (1a) is thermodynamically more stable. Small amounts of the bisadducts were also formed. The structure of the thermodynamic monoadduct 1a was shown conclusively by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography to result from addition across the 5,6-ring junction. The kinetic product 1b was demonstrated to be the 6,6-ring juncture adduct on the basis of NMR experiments and X-ray crystallography. In refluxing chlorobenzene pure 1b was converted to the more thermodynamically stable 1a isomer. These N-tritylpyrrolidino derivatives are potentially useful precursor compounds for further derivatization for various applications.