Heterolysis of Dihydrogen by Silver Alkoxides and Fluorides

Abstract

Alkoxide-bridged disilver cations react with dihydrogen to form hydride-bridged cations, releasing free alcohol. Hydrogenolysis of neutral silver fluorides affords hydride-bridged disilver cations as their bifluoride salts. These reactions proceed most efficiently when the supporting ligands are expanded N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) derived from 6- and 7-membered cyclic amidinium salts. Kinetics studies show that silver fluoride hydrogenolysis is first-order in both silver and dihydrogen.