Ligand exchanges and selective catalytic hydrogenation in molecular single crystals

Chemical reactions inside single crystals are likely to be highly selective, but examples of single crystal to single crystal (SC-SC) transformations are uncommon, because crystallinity is difficult to retain following the rearrangement of atoms in the solid state(1-19). The most widely studied SC-SC transformations involve solvent exchange reactions in porous coordination polymers or metal-organic frameworks, which take advantage of the robust polymeric networks of the hosts(2,8,9-11). Examples of reactions occurring within molecular organic crystals generally involve photo-induced reactions, such as the coupling of alkenes or alkynes within the crystal(1,2,12-15). For nonporous molecular inorganic or organometallic crystals, single-crystal transformations involving the formation or cleavage of metal-ligand bonds are rare(17-21); known examples usually involve ligand loss from the single crystal and reversible religation, a process sometimes accompanied by decay of the single crystal to a microcrystalline powder(20,21). Here we report a series of SC-SC transformations that involve the interchange of multiple small gaseous ligands (N(2), CO, NH(3), C(2)H(4), H(2) and O(2)) at an iridium centre in molecular single crystals of a pincer Ir(I) complex. The single crystal remains intact during these ligand-exchange reactions, which occur within the crystal and do not require prior ligand extrusion. We reveal a selective catalytic transformation within a nonporous molecular crystal: pincer iridium single crystals ligated with nitrogen, ethylene or hydrogen show selective hydrogenation of ethylene relative to propylene (25:1) when surface sites are passified by CO.