Real-world C-H bond activation

Abstract

Details of a mechanism for activating the normally inert carbon-hydrogen bond in room-temperature alkane solution have emerged from experiments using ultrafast infrared spectroscopic techniques. C-H bond activation is potentially useful for converting alkanes into functionalized organic molecules. The findings are the result of a collaborative effort between the research groups of chemistry professors Robert G. Bergman and Charles B. Harris at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in conjunction with senior scientist Heinz Frei at LBNL. Using IR spectroscopic techniques that probed initial events in the femtosecond time scale and subsequent events in the pico- and nanosecond time scales, they determined intermediates and energy barriers for each step in the reaction of a rhodium complex in aikane solution at room temperature and pressure [ Science , 278 ,260(1997)]. The study demonstrates the power of ultrafast infrared spectroscopy in intercepting and characte...