Transition metal catalysis by density functional theory and density functional theory/molecular mechanics

Can Contemporary Density Functional Theory Predict Energy Spans in Molecular Catalysis Accurately Enough To Be Applicable for in Silico Catalyst Design? A Computational/Experimental Case Study for the Ruthenium-Catalyzed Hydrogenation of Olefins

The catalytic hydrogenation of cyclohexene and 1-methylcyclohexene is investigated experimentally and by means of density functional theory (DFT) computations using novel ruthenium Xantphos(Ph) (4,5-bis(diphenylphosphino)-9,9-dimethylxanthene) and Xantphos(Cy) (4,5-bis(dicyclohexylphosphino)-9,9-dimethylxanthene) precatalysts [Ru(Xantphos(Ph))(PhCO2)(Cl)] (1) and [Ru(Xantphos(Cy))(PhCO2)(Cl)] (2), the synthesis, characterization, and crystal structures of which are reported. The intention of this work is to (i) understand the reaction mechanisms on the microscopic level and (ii) compare experimentally observed activation barriers with computed barriers. The Gibbs free activation energy ΔG(⧧) was obtained experimentally with precatalyst 1 from Eyring plots for the hydrogenation of cyclohexene (ΔG(⧧) = 17.2 ± 1.0 kcal/mol) and 1-methylcyclohexene (ΔG(⧧) = 18.8 ± 2.4 kcal/mol), while the Gibbs free activation energy ΔG(⧧) for the hydrogenation of cyclohexene with precatalyst 2 was determined to be 21.1 ± 2.3 kcal/mol. Plausible activation pathways and catalytic cycles were computed in the gas phase (M06-L/def2-SVP). A variety of popular density functionals (ωB97X-D, LC-ωPBE, CAM-B3LYP, B3LYP, B97-D3BJ, B3LYP-D3, BP86-D3, PBE0-D3, M06-L, MN12-L) were used to reoptimize the turnover determining states in the solvent phase (DF/def2-TZVP; IEF-PCM and/or SMD) to investigate how well the experimentally obtained activation barriers can be reproduced by the calculations. The density functionals B97-D3BJ, MN12-L, M06-L, B3LYP-D3, and CAM-B3LYP reproduce the experimentally observed activation barriers for both olefins very well with very small (0.1 kcal/mol) to moderate (3.0 kcal/mol) mean deviations from the experimental values indicating for the field of hydrogenation catalysis most of these functionals to be useful for in silico catalyst design prior to experimental work.

Selective C-H and C-C Bond Activation: Electronic Regimes as a Tool for Designing d(10) MLn Catalysts

We wish to understand how a transition-metal catalyst can be rationally designed so as to selectively activate one particular bond in a substrate, herein, C-H and C-C bonds in ethane. To this end, we quantum chemically analyzed the activity and selectivity of a large series of model catalysts towards ethane and, for comparison, methane, by using the activation strain model and quantitative molecular orbital theory. The model catalysts comprise d(10) MLn complexes with coordination numbers n=0, 1, and 2; metal centers M=Co(-), Rh(-), Ir(-), Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu(+), Ag(+), and Au(+); and ligands L=NH3, PH3, and CO. Our analyses reveal that rather subtle electronic differences between bonds can be exploited to induce a lower barrier for activating one or the other, depending, among other factors, on the catalysts electronic regime (i.e., s-regime versus d-regime catalysts). Interestingly, the concepts and design principles emerging from this work can also be applied to the more challenging problem of differentiating between activation of the C-H bonds in ethane versus those in methane.