Application of Hetero-Triphos Ligands in the Selective Ruthenium-Catalyzed Transformation of Carbon Dioxide to the Formaldehyde Oxidation State

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/acs.organomet.9b00107

Due to the increasing demand for formaldehyde as a building block in the chemical industry as well as its emerging potential as feedstock for biofuels in the form of dimethoxymethane and the oxymethylene ethers produced therefrom, the catalytic transformation of carbon dioxide to the formaldehyde oxidation state has become a focus of interest. In this work, we present novel ruthenium complexes with hetero-triphos ligands, which show high activity in the selective transformation of carbon dioxide to dimethoxymethane. We substituted the apical carbon atom in the backbone of the triphos ligand platform with silicon or phosphorus and optimized the reaction conditions to achieve turnover numbers as high as 685 for dimethoxymethane. The catalytic systems could also be tuned to preferably yield methyl formate with turnover numbers of up to 1370, which in turn can be converted into dimethoxymethane under moderate conditions.