Premium
Trapping and Reactivity of a Molecular Aluminium Oxide Ion
Author(s) -
Hicks Jamie,
Heilmann Andreas,
Vasko Petra,
Goicoechea Jose M.,
Aldridge Simon
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201910509
Subject(s) - heterolysis , catalysis , reactivity (psychology) , chemistry , oxide , molecule , aluminium oxide , aluminium , ion , medicinal chemistry , inorganic chemistry , organic chemistry , materials science , metallurgy , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
Aluminium oxides constitute an important class of inorganic compound that are widely exploited in the chemical industry as catalysts and catalyst supports. Due to the tendency for such systems to aggregate via Al‐ O ‐Al bridges, the synthesis of well‐defined, soluble, molecular models for these materials is challenging. Here we show that reactions of the potassium aluminyl complex K 2 [( NON )Al] 2 ( NON =4,5‐bis(2,6‐diiso‐propylanilido)‐2,7‐di‐tert‐butyl‐9,9‐dimethylxanthene) with CO 2 , PhNCO and N 2 O all proceed via a common aluminium oxide intermediate. This highly reactive species can be trapped by coordination of a THF molecule as the anionic oxide complex [( NON )AlO(THF)] − , which features discrete Al−O bonds and dimerizes in the solid state via weak O⋅⋅⋅K interactions. This species reacts with a range of small molecules including N 2 O (to give a hyponitrite ([N 2 O 2 ] 2− ) complex) and H 2 , the latter offering an unequivocal example of heterolytic E−H bond cleavage across a main group M−O bond.