Catalytic conversion of ethene to butadiene or hydrogenation to ethane on HY zeolite-supported rhodium complexes: Cooperative support/Rh-center route

Rh(C2H4)2 species grafted on the HY zeolite framework significantly enhance the activation of H2 that reacts with C2H4 ligands to form C2H6. While in this case, the simultaneous activation of C2H4 and H2 and the reaction between these species on zeolite-loaded Rh cations is a legitimate hydrogenation pathway yielding C2H6, the results obtained for Rh(CO)(C2H4)/HY materials exposed to H2 convincingly show that the support-assisted C2H4 hydrogenation pathway also exists. This additional and previously unrecognized hydrogenation pathway couples with the conversion of C2H4 ligands on Rh sites and contributes significantly to the overall hydrogenation activity. This pathway does not require simultaneous activation of reactants on the same metal center and, therefore, is mechanistically different from hydrogenation chemistry exhibited by molecular organometallic complexes. We also demonstrate that the conversion of zeolite-supported Rh(CO)2 complexes into Rh(CO)(C2H4) species under ambient conditions is not a simple CO/C2H4 ligand exchange reaction on Rh sites, as this process also involves the conversion of C2H4 into C4 hydrocarbons, among which 1,3-butadiene is the main product formed with the initial selectivity exceeding 98% and the turnover frequency of 8.9 × 10−3 s−1. Thus, the primary role of zeolite-supported Rh species is not limited to the activation of H2, as these species significantly accelerate the formation of the C4 hydrocarbons from C2H4 even without the presence of H2 in the feed. Using periodic density functional theory calculations, we examined several catalytic pathways that can lead to the conversion of C2H4 into 1,3-butadiene over these materials and identified the reaction route via intermediate formation of rhodacyclopentane.