Metal-alkane coordination complexes are of both fundamental and practical importance, owing to the role of such species as intermediates in the functionalization of alkanes. Metal complexes of methane are the most difficult to characterize owing to the low polarizability of this alkane. This talk will describe the synthesis and low-temperature nuclear magnetic resonance solution characterization of kinetically stable osmium-alkane complexes, with a focus on methane complexes. Key ligand design principles, suggested by density functional theory calculations and confirmed by experiment, will be discussed, including a detailed analysis of the chemical shifts and C-H coupling constants of the 13CH4, 13CH3D, 13CH2D2, and 13CHD3 adducts. This isotopic analysis provides the first experimental confirmation of binding mode details in a metal-methane complex.

Osmium(II) σ-methane complex: Isotopic analysis reveals the methane binding mode

249th National Meeting (2015)

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