Cover Picture: Measuring the Relative Reactivity of the Carbon–Hydrogen Bonds of Alkanes as Nucleophiles (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 42/2018)

Catalytic Functionalization of Methane and Light Alkanes in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

International audience; The development of catalytic methods for the effective functionalization of methane yet remains a challenge. The best system known to date is the so-called Catalytica Process based on the use of platinum catalysts to convert methane into methyl bisulfate with a TOF rate of 10−3 s. In this contribution, we report a series of silver complexes containing perfluorinated tris(indazolyl)borate ligands that catalyze the functionalization of methane into ethyl propionate upon reaction with ethyl diazoacetate (EDA) by using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as the reaction medium. The employment of this reaction medium has also allowed the functionalization of ethane, prop…

Titelbild: Measuring the Relative Reactivity of the Carbon–Hydrogen Bonds of Alkanes as Nucleophiles (Angew. Chem. 42/2018)

Silver-Catalyzed C-C Bond Formation between Methane and Ethyl Diazoacetate in Supercritical CO2

Even in the context of hydrocarbons’ general resistance to selective functionalization, methane’s volatility and strong bonds pose a particular challenge. We report here that silver complexes bearing perfluorinated indazolylborate ligands catalyze the reaction of methane (CH4) with ethyl diazoacetate (N2CHCO2Et) to yield ethyl propionate (CH3CH2CO2Et). The use of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as the solvent is key to the reaction’s success. Although the catalyst is only sparingly soluble in CH4/CO2 mixtures, optimized conditions presently result in a 19% yield of ethyl propionate (based on starting quantity of the diazoester) at 40°C over 14 hours.

Measuring the Relative Reactivity of the Carbon-Hydrogen Bonds of Alkanes as Nucleophiles

We report quantitative measurements of the relative reactivities of a series of C-H bonds of gaseous or liquid CnH2n+2 alkanes (n = 1-8, 29 different C-H bonds) towards insitu generated electrophiles (copper, silver, and rhodium carbenes), with methane as the reference. This strategy surpasses the drawback of previous model reactions of alkanes with strong electrophiles suffering from C-C cleavage processes, which precluded direct comparison of the relative reactivities of alkane C-H bonds.