Ruthenium Bis(σ-B-H) Aminoborane Complexes from Dehydrogenation of Amine-Boranes: Trapping of H2B-NH2

摘要

Ammonia-borane has attracted considerable interest recently as a potential hydrogen source and storage material owing to its high hydrogen storage capacity. Homogeneous transition-metal-catalyzed dehydrogenation of ammonia-boranes leads to dihydrogen release; however, reversible storage from the resulting polymeric materials remains a major problem. The nature of the transition metal complex used to catalyze the dehydrogenation of the amine-borane family H3B-NR_(3-n) H_n (n = 1-3) (I) has a direct impact both on kinetics and dehydrocoupling routes. However, the successive elementary steps leading to dehydrocoupling are still not well understood, and the question of the BH/NH bond activation mechanism is a very active area of research.