Alkane dehydrogenation catalyzed by a PN3P pincer iridium hydride complex

Abstract

The use of an iridium-based pincer complex, specifically the PN³P pincer ligand backbone, for an efficient alkane dehydrogenation reaction is explored. Herein, we investigate the catalytic performance of a PN³P pincer iridium dihydride complex (Ir2) in the dehydrogenation reaction of cyclooctane to cyclooctene. With 0.1 mol% of Ir2, cyclooctane with tert-butylethylene (TBE) as a hydrogen acceptor and NaO^tBu as a base, we achieved conversion up to 55% of tert-butylethylene (TBE) with a TON up to 546. These results highlight the potential of PN³P pincer iridium dihydride complexes as robust catalysts for selective alkane dehydrogenation under mild reaction conditions. Furthermore, DFT calculations strongly support our proposed mechanism.