Molecular catalytic coal liquid conversion. Quarterly progress report, [April--June 1993

Abstract

This phase of the project essentially consists of preparing organometallic reagents which are known or have been reported to act as homogeneous hydrogenation catalysts of aromatic hydrocarbons and studying their properties as homogeneous hydrogenation catalysts under various conditions with the ultimate objective of using these compounds to catalyze the conversion of coal liquids. With regards to this task, we have prepared two rhodium (I) catalysts. These are the dimer of dichloropentamethylcyclopentadienylrhodium, [RhCl{sub 2}(C{sub 5}Me{sub 5})], and the dimer of chloro(1,5-hexadiene) rhodium. The dimer of dichloropentamethylcyclopentadienylrhodium was prepared by stirring rhodium (III) chloride hydrate with hexamethyldewarbenzene at 65{degrees}C. It was reported to hydrogenate arenes and various substituted arenas such as aryl ethers, esters and ketones at 50{degrees} and 50 atm of dihydrogen. The dimer of chloro (1,5-hexadiene) rhodium was prepared by reacting rhodium (III) chloride hydrate with 1,5-hexadiene at 50{degrees}C for six days in water. Our second task is to investigate the chemistry of base-catalyzed hydrogenation of organic compounds with the ultimate objective of applying the chemistry behind this novel concept to the catalytic conversion of coal liquids. It is not generally known that bases such as the hydroxide ion are capable of activating dihydrogen to form ``solvated hydride`` or hydride-likemore » species which can effect hydrogenation reactions under the appropriate conditions. Research during the first half of this century has amply demonstrated the feasibility of this concept. More recently, Klingler, Krause and Rathke studied the role of this kind of chemistry in the water-gas shift reaction. So far, only Walling and Bollyky have been the only investigators to have applied dihydrogen activation by bases to the hydrogenation of organic compounds.« less