Dirhodium(II) complex catalyzed dehydrosilylation of styrenes: theoretical investigations on the mechanism, selectivity, and ligand effects.

The dirhodium(II) complexes with bridging phosphine and OAc ligands showed high reactivity and selectivities in olefin dehydrosilylation. In order to determine the structure of the actual catalyst which cannot be determined experimentally, the geometries of the dirhodium catalyst, the detailed catalytic mechanism, and the stereo- and chemo-selectivities of the title reaction were studied using DFT calculations. The results showed that one OAc group is monodentate and the other is bidentate in the dirhodium catalyst C'. The determined catalytic cycle consists of four processes: Rh-H bond activation in C', Si-H bond activation in alkoxysilane, alkylene insertion into the Rh-Si bond, followed by β-H elimination or σ-metathesis reaction. Among them, the alkylene insertion process is the rate-determining step. The stereoselectivity of the title reaction is controlled by the steric effect and orbital interactions between the alkyene and dirhodium catalysts in the β-H elimination process. The chemoselectivity is regulated by the presence of the axial ligand in the dirhodium catalyst, when there is an axial ligand coordinated to the Rh atom, E -alkene is the main product, whereas alkane would be obtained in the absence of an axial ligand. Our work determines the structure of the actual catalyst, and provides explanations and predictions for the activity, and chemo- and stereo-selectivity control of olefin dehydrosilylation.