Simple Alkaline-Earth Metal Catalysts for Effective Alkene Hydrogenation

Alkaline earth metal amides (AeN ''(2): Ae = Ca, Sr, Ba, N '' = N(SiMe3)(2)) catalyze alkene hydrogenation (80-120 degrees C, 1-6 bar H-2, 1-10 mol% cat.), with the activity increasing with metal size. Various activated C=C bonds (styrene, p-MeO-styrene, alpha-Me-styrene, Ph2C=CH2, trans-stilbene, cyclohexadiene, 1-Ph-cyclohexene), semi-activated C=C bonds (Me3SiCH=CH2, norbornadiene), or non-activated (isolated) C= C bonds (norbornene, 4-vinylcyclohexene, 1-hexene) could be reduced. The results show that neutral Ca or Ba catalysts are active in the challenging hydrogenation of isolated double bonds. For activated alkenes (e.g. styrene), polymerization is fully suppressed due to fast protonation of the highly reactive benzyl intermediate by N '' H (formed in the catalyst initiation). Using cyclohexadiene as the H source, the first Ae metal catalyzed H-transfer hydrogenation is reported. DFT calculations on styrene hydrogenation using CaN ''(2) show that styrene oligomerization competes with styrene hydrogenation. Calculations also show that protonation of the benzylcalcium intermediate with N '' H is a low-energy escape route, thus avoiding oligomerization.