Surface Organometallic Chemistry of Tantalum: Application to the Metathesis of Alkanes Catalyzed by a Tantalum Hydride Supported on Silica

Abstract

A review (36 refs.). Surface organometallic chem. is aimed at theprepn. of highly reactive well-defined supported organometallic specieswhich would obey the concepts and the rules of mol. organometallicchem. The formation of various silica-supported tantalum complexesis described and some interesting catalytic properties of these surfacespecies, particularly the tantalum hydride, are presented. The highlyunsatd. tantalum hydride shows interesting properties in the stoichiometricC-H bond activation of cycloalkanes and methane. In particular,it revealed itself as a catalyst precursor for the new reaction ofalkane metathesis which leads to the transformation of an alkaneinto its higher and lower homologues. [on SciFinder (R)]