Pt(+)-mediated activation of methane: theory and experiment

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/0009-2614(95)00446-B

A combined theoretical and experimental study on the Pt(+)-mediated activation of methane is presented. Dehydrogenation of CH2 by thermalized Pt(+) cations (Pt(+)+CH4.dblarw.PtCH2(+)+H2) proceeds along a doublet ground state potential energy surface and is found to be reversible under the conditions of Fourier transform ion-cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. The recently reported oxidation of the cationic platinum carbene PtCH2(+) by O2 produces electronically excited Pt(+) cations, which are detected in the (4)F(9/2) state by means of charge-transfer bracketing experiments.