Study of Precatalyst Degradation Leading to the Discovery of a New Ru⁰ Precatalyst for Hydrogenation and Dehydrogenation

The complex Ru-MACHO (1) is a widely used precatalyst for hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions under basic conditions. In an attempt to identify the active catalyst form, 1 was reacted with a strong base. The formation of previously unreported species was observed by NMR and mass spectrometry. This observation indicated that complex 1 quickly degraded under basic conditions when no substrate was present. X-ray crystallography enabled the identification of three complexes as products of this degradation of complex 1. These complexes suggested degradation pathways which included ligand cleavage and reassembly, along with reduction of the ruthenium atom. One of the decomposition products, the Ru⁰ complex [Ru(N(CH₂CH₂PPh₂)₃)CO] (5), was prepared independently and studied. 5 was found to be active, entirely additive-free, in the acceptorless dehydrogenation of aliphatic alcohols to esters. The hydrogenation of esters catalyzed by 5 was also demonstrated under base-free conditions with methanol as an additive. Protic substrates were shown to add reversibly to complex 5, generating Ru^II-hydrido species, thus presenting a rare example of reversible oxidative addition from Ru⁰ to Ru^II and reductive elimination from Ru^II to Ru⁰.