PHOTOACTIVATION OF POLYMER-ANCHORED CATALYSTS - IRON CARBONYL CATALYZED REACTIONS OF ALKENES.

Photoactivation of polymer-anchored iron carbonyl catalysts is reported. Prototypic reactions are 1-pentene isomerization and reaction of 1-pentene with HSiEt//3, which can be photocatalyzed at 25 degree C by near-UV irradiation of suspensions of the polymer-anchored catalyst systems. The basic polymer system is a styrene-1% divinylbenzene resin derivatized with either minus PPh//2 or minus P(Ph)CH//2CH//2PPh//2 anchoring sites for catalyst precursors. Fe(CO)//n's (n equals 3, 4) are attached to the phosphine sites by reaction with Fe//3(CO)//1//2. The polymer-anchored catalysts show turnover numbers exceeding 2 multiplied by 10**4 in some cases and observed quantum yields exceed unity, indicating the photogeneration of a thermal catalyst. From the data the authors conclude that the anchoring Fe-P bond is relatively photoinert and that the catalysis is initiated by the photoinduced dissociation of CO.