The mechanistic understanding and control over transformations of multi-unsaturated hydrocarbons on transition metal surfaces remains one of the major challenges of hydrogenation catalysis. To reveal the microscopic origins of hydrogenation chemoselectivity, we performed a comprehensive theoretical investigation on the reactivity of two α,β-unsaturated carbonyls-isophorone and acrolein-on seven...

Towards the development of a useful mechanism for hydrogen storage, we have studied the hydrogenation of single-walled carbon nanotubes with atomic hydrogen using core-level photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. We find that atomic hydrogen creates C-H bonds with the carbon atoms in the nanotube walls, and such C-H bonds can be completely broken by heating to 600 degrees...

The mimic of hydrogenases has unleashed a myriad of bifunctional catalysts, which are widely used in the catalytic hydrogenation of polar multiple bonds. With respect to ancillary ligands, the bifunctional mechanism is generally considered to proceed via the metal-ligand cooperation transition state. Inspired by the interesting study conducted by Hanson et al. (Chem Commun., 2013, 49, 10151), w...

In this paper, the in-plane torsional properties of two dimensional nanomaterials are revealed to be tunable by surface functionalization using molecular dynamics simulations. The torsional strengths of both graphene and graphyne under circular shearing are found to first decrease and then increase anomalously with the increase of the hydrogenation ratio. The minimum strength of such U-shaped s...

The enantioselective hydrogenation of 2-benzylquinolines and 2-functionalized and 2,3-disubstituted quinolines was developed by using the [Ir(COD)Cl](2)/bisphosphine/I(2) system with up to 96% ee. Moreover, mechanistic studies revealed the hydrogenation mechanism of quinoline involves a 1,4-hydride addition, isomerization, and 1,2-hydride addition, and the catalytic active species may be a Ir(I...

The pressure hydrogenation capabilities of the iridium pincer complexes IrH2Cl[((i)Pr2PC2H4)2NH] (1) and IrH3[((i)Pr2PC2H4)2NH] (2) are described and compared to related results obtained previously in transfer hydrogenation. Complex 1 was shown to act as a convenient air-stable entry point to the active catalyst 2, in the presence of base and hydrogen gas. The catalysts are active in a range of...

The governing mechanism of surface reactions is a fundamental concern in heterogeneous catalysis. The Langmuir–Hinshelwood (LH) mechanism is widely accepted to control the surface reactions in many catalytic systems. This contribution derives and compares several important surface rate equations to evaluate their quality of fitting to the experimental data collected for a vapor-phase hydrogenat...

The alloy TiFe is widely used as hydrogen storage material. However, the first hydrogenation difficult. It was found that addition of zirconium greatly improves kinetic hydrogenation, but mechanism not well understood. In this paper, we report use scanning photoemission microscopy to investigate composition and chemical state various phases present in how they change upon hydrogenation/dehydrog...

The use of non-supported Fe nanoparticles in the hydrogenation of unsaturated C-C bonds is a green catalytic concept at the frontier between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Iron nanoparticles can be obtained by reducing Fe salts with strong reductants in various solvents. FeCl(3) reduced by 3 equivalents of EtMgCl forms an active catalyst for the hydrogenation of a range of olefins and...