Transition metal polyhydride complexes. 10. Intramolecular hydrogen exchange in the octahedral iridium(III) dihydrogen dihydride complexes IrXH22-H2)(PR3)2 (X = Cl, Br, I)

Shuhua Li, Michael B. Hall, Juergen Eckert, Craig M. Jensen, Alberto Albinati

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38 Scopus citations

Abstract

Density functional calculations (B3LYP) on IrXH22-H2)(PR3)2 for X = Cl, Br, I and R = H, Me and inelastic neutron scattering studies for X = Cl, Br, I and R = Pr(i) are used to elucidate the mechanisms for the intramolecular dihydrogen/hydride exchange. The two lowest energy processes are rotation of the dihydrogen ligand and oxidative addition of the dihydrogen to form an intermediate Ir(V) tetrahydride, which undergoes rapid reductive elimination to interchange the dihydrides and the dihydrogen. The use of PMe3 as a model phosphine is essential to bring the calculated barriers for the dihydrogen/hydride interchange into agreement with the experimental observations. The activation energy for site exchange (1.9 kcal/mol) is found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental result obtained for X = Cl (1.5(2) kcal/mol), and the calculations show a slight decrease in this value from X = Cl to I. Comparison between calculated rotational barriers (0.4 to 0.7 kcal/mol) and experimental values obtained for IrXH22-H2)(PR3)2 (X = Cl, Br, I; R = Pr(i)) (0.5 to 1.0 kcal/mol) also demonstrates that the quantitative estimate of the barrier to rotation requires PMe3 as the minimal model ligand.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2903-2910
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume122
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 29 2000

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