Important milestone on the way to transition metal catalysis with aluminum

Albert-Ludwigs-Universitt Freiburg is located in Germany.

The low-valent cationic aluminum complex [Al(AlCp*) 3 ] has been synthesised by Philipp Dabringhaus, Julie Willrett and Prof. Dr. Ingo Krossing from the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry. The team presented their work in the journal.

Cationic low-valent aluminum compounds are highly sought after due to their reactivity. Many previous attempts to synthesise cationic low-valent aluminum compounds by oxidation or lysis have been unsuccessful. He said that there is only one example of a cationic, low-valent aluminum compound that can be prepared. There is an unexpectedly easy access to low-valent aluminum complexes with metathesis after all. Partial structures are exchanged between the partners.

It's cheaper to use aluminum as a catalyst.

The salt was prepared from the Schnckel tetramer, in which aluminum is already present. The reaction mixture turned from yellow to red after the (AlCp*) 4 reacted. Salt as dark purple crystals was obtained when the reaction mixture wascrystallised. The dimeric structure can be seen in both the solid state and solution at high concentration and low temperature. The reactivity of the cation is clearly indicated by this.

Due to its cationic nature, this salt could be used as a building block for an Al(L) 3 + salt. We are one step closer to our long-term goal of achieving catalysis with aluminum, thanks to this. The second most abundant element in the Earth's crust is aluminum. It will probably be another 20 years before we apply our research on this.

More information: Philipp Dabringhaus et al, Synthesis of a low-valent Al4+ cluster cation salt, Nature Chemistry (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41557-022-01000-4

The paper talks about expanding the field of low-Valent main-group caustics to aluminum.

Journal information: Nature Chemistry Provided by Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau