Efficient CO2 Insertion and Reduction Catalyzed by a Terminal Zinc Hydride Complex.

The terminal zinc hydride complex [Tntm]ZnH (2; Tntm=tris(6-tert-butyl-3-thiopyridazinyl)methanide) is an efficient hydrosilylation catalyst of CO2 at room temperature without the need of Lewis acidic additives. The inherent electrophilicity of the system leads to selective formation of the monosilylated product (MeO)3 SiO2 CH (at room temperature with a TOF of 22.2 h-1 and at 45 °C with a TOF of 66.7 h-1 ). In absence of silanes, the intermediate formate complex [Tntm]Zn(O2 CH) (3) is quantitatively formed within 5 min. All complexes were fully characterized by 1 H and 13 C NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal a high positive charge on zinc and the increased preference of the ligand to adopt a κ3 -coordination mode.