The coupling of arenes to form biphenyls has a number of industrial applications. These include the production of heat transfer fluids and high performance polymers. Biphenyls have additional uses in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and fine chemical industries. This project utilizes homogeneous iridium complexes with the goal of increasing the reaction yield and selectivity of the biaryl products. Previous work has determined that, in the presence of oxygen, Cp*Ir(Me<sub>2</sub>SO)Ph<sub>2</sub> can undergo reductive elimination to produce biphenyl. This project focuses on iridium(III) complexes with substituted aryl rings, specifically p-tolyl and p-methoxyphenyl. Kinetic analyses will be performed with these complexes to determine the rate of reductive elimination in comparison to the unsubstituted diphenyl complex. Computational studies were also performed to determine the effect of the ancillary ligand, solvent, and aryl substitution on the barrier for reductive elimination.

Synthesis and characterization of Cp*Ir(III) diphenyl complexes

251st National Meeting (2016)

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