Dehydrocoupling of dimethylamine-borane promoted by manganese(II) m-terphenyl complexes

摘要

Two- and three-coordinate manganese m-terphenyl complexes are precatalysts for the dehydrogenation of dimethylamine-borane (Me2NH center dot BH3) affording one equivalent of molecular hydrogen and half an equivalent of [Me2N-BH2](2). Experimental studies into the nature of the catalyst indicate that small changes in the coordination environment give rise to significant differences in the reaction mechanism, occurring through a homogeneous mechanism for two-coordinate precatalysts, whilst for the three-coordinate species a heterogeneous mechanism takes place where nanoparticles are responsible for the catalysis.