Oxidative Hydrophenylation of Ethylene Using a Cationic Ru(II) Catalyst: Styrene Production with Ethylene as the Oxidant
The complex [(MeOTTM)Ru(P(OCH 2 ) 3 CEt)(NCMe)Ph][BAr' 4 ] (MeOTMM = 4,4',4"-(methoxymethanetriyl)-tris(1-benzyl-1H-1,2,3-triazole), BAr' 4 = tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]borate) is used to catalyze the hydrophenylation of ethylene to produce styrene and ethylbenzene. The selectivity of styrene versus ethylbenzene varies as a function of ethylene pressure, and replacing the MeOTTM ligand with tris(1-phenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)methanol reduces the selectivity toward styrene. For styrene production ethylene serves as the oxidant to produce ethane, as determined by both 1 H NMR spectroscopy and GC-MS. The Ru(III/II) potentials of [(MeOTTM)Ru[P(OCH 2 ) 3 CEt](NCMe)Ph][BAr' 4 ] (0.86 V) and [(HC(pz 5 ) 3 )Ru[P(OCH 2 ) 3 CEt](NCMe)Ph][BAr' 4 ] (0.82 V) (HC(pz 5 ) 3 = tris(5-methyl-pyrazolyl)methane) are nearly identical. Since catalytic conversion of ethylene and benzene by [(HC(pz 5 ) 3 )Ru[P(OCH 2 ) 3 CEt](NCMe)Ph][BAr' 4] is known to selectively produce ethylbenzene, the formation of styrene using [(MeOTTM)Ru[P(OCH 2 ) 3 CEt](NCMe)Ph][BAr' 4 ] is attributed to the substituents on the triazole rings of the MeOTTM ligand.