Dehydrogenation of ammonia-borane by cationic Pd(II) and Ni(II) complexes in a nitromethane medium: hydrogen release and spent fuel characterization

A highly electrophilic cationic Pd-II complex, [Pd(MeCN)(4)][BF4](2) (1), brings about the preferential activation of the B-H bond in ammonia-borane (NH3 center dot BH3, AB). At room temperature, the reaction between 1 in CH3NO2 and AB in tetraglyme leads to Pd nanoparticles and formation of spent fuels of the general formula MeNHxBOy as reaction byproducts, while 2 equiv. of H-2 is efficiently released per AB equiv. at room temperature within 60 seconds. For a mechanistic understanding of dehydrogenation by 1, the chemical structures of spent fuels were intensely characterized by a series of analyses such as elemental analysis (EA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), solid state magic-angle-spinning (MAS) NMR spectra (H-2, C-13, N-15, and B-11), and cross polarization (CP) MAS methods. During AB dehydrogenation, the involvement of MeNO2 in the spent fuels showed that the mechanism of dehydrogenation catalyzed by 1 is different from that found in the previously reported results. This AB dehydrogenation derived from MeNO2 is supported by a subsequent digestion experiment of the AB spent fuel: B(OMe)(3) and N-methyl-hydroxylamine ([Me(OH)N](2)CH2), which are formed by the methanolysis of the AB spent fuel (MeNHxBOy), were identified by means of B-11 NMR and single crystal structural analysis, respectively. A similar catalytic behavior was also observed in the AB dehydrogenation catalyzed by a nickel catalyst, [Ni(MeCN)(6)][BF4](2) (2).