A Two-State Computational Investigation of Methane C-H and Ethane C-C Oxidative Addition to [CpM(PH3)]n+ (M=Co, Rh, Ir;n=0, 1)

Reductive elimination of methane from methyl hydride half-sandwich phosphane complexes of the Group 9 metals has been investigated by DFT calculations on the model system [CpM(PH(3))(CH(3))(H)] (M = Co, Rh, Ir). For each metal, the unsaturated product has a triplet ground state; thus, spin crossover occurs during the reaction. All relevant stationary points on the two potential energy surfaces (PES) and the minimum energy crossing point (MECP) were optimized. Spin crossover occurs very near the sigma-CH(4) complex local minimum for the Co system, whereas the heavier Rh and Ir systems remain in the singlet state until the CH(4) molecule is almost completely expelled from the metal coordinati…