Rhenium Complexes Bearing Tridentate and Bidentate Phosphinoamine Ligands in the Production of Biofuel Alcohols via the Guerbet Reaction

Ashley M King, Richard L Wingad, Natalie E Pridmore, Paul G Pringle, Duncan F Wass

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
48 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We report a variety of rhenium complexes supported by bidentate and tridentate phosphinoamine ligands and their use in the formation of the advanced biofuel isobutanol from methanol and ethanol. Rhenium pincer complexes 1-3 are effective catalysts for this process, with 2 giving isobutanol in 35% yields, with 97% selectivity in the liquid fraction, over 16 h with catalyst loadings as low as 0.07 mol %. However, these catalysts show poorer overall selectivity, with the formation of a significant amount of carboxylate salt solid byproduct also being observed. Production of the active catalyst 1d has been followed by 31P NMR spectroscopy, and the importance of the presence of base and elevated temperatures to catalyst activation has been established. Complexes supported by diphosphine ligands are inactive for Guerbet chemistry; however, complexes supported by bidentate phosphinoamine ligands show greater selectivity for isobutanol formation over carboxylate salts. The novel complex 7 was able to produce isobutanol in 28% yield over 17 h. The importance of the N-H moiety to the catalytic performance has also been established, giving further weight to the hypothesis that these catalysts operate via a cooperative mechanism.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2844-2851
Number of pages8
JournalOrganometallics
Volume40
Issue number16
Early online date4 Aug 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 23 Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thanks BP and the EPSRC (grant EP/P510452) for funding.

Publisher Copyright:
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