Heterogeneous Olefin Hydrogenation Enabled by a Highly-Reduced Nickel(-II) Catalyst Precursor

The hydrogenation of olefins, styrenes, enoates, imines, and sterically hindered tri-substituted olefins was accomplished using the pre-catalyst dilithiumbis(cycloocta-1,5-diene)nickelate(-II) (1). The mild conditions tolerate hydroxyl, halide, ester, and lactone functionalities. Mechanistic studies, including reaction progress analyses, poisoning experiments, and multinuclear NMR monitoring, indicate that a heterotopic (nickel nanoparticle) catalyst is in operation.

Heterogeneous Olefin Hydrogenation Enabled by a Highly-Reduced Nickel(-II) Catalyst Precursor

Invited for the cover of this issue is the group of Robert Wolf at the University of Regensburg and colleagues at the University of Hamburg. The image depicts the hydrogenation of triphenylethylene. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/chem.201905537.