Practical Gas Cylinder-Free Preparations of Important Transition Metal-Based Precatalysts Requiring Gaseous Reagents

A simple and safe setup for the synthesis of a selection of important transition metal-based precatalysts is reported, all requiring low-molecular weight gaseous reagents for their preparation. Hydrogen, carbon monoxide, ethylene, and acetylene are each liberated in a controlled manner from a corresponding easy-to-handle precursor in a closed two-chamber reactor. Gas cylinders and elaborate setups/techniques connected to handling toxic and/or flammable gases as reported in the literature can thus be avoided. The corresponding precatalysts are of high relevance in the active research fields of C-H bond activation, dehydrogenation, hydrogenation, and coupling reactions. The selection of complexes shown is meant to serve as examples for the usefulness and broadness of the presented methods, allowing precatalysts requiring gaseous reagents to become available for the research community.