ALKANE ACTIVATION BY OXIDE-SUPPORTED ORGANORHODIUM COMPLEXES.

It is of interest to determine how a gross change in the ligand environment affects the reactivity of a metal system bound to it. Specifically, the author aims to elucidate changes in rules of molecular reactivity which occur when the soft ligand environment of a transition metal complex is replaced by a hard oxygen-based one. In this context, solid metallic oxides were chosen to provide this oxygen-based ligation. It is proposed that methane can be activated by an intramolecular ligand rearrangement route from a two-electron, three-centered intermediate analogous to that proposed for activation of H//2. It is demonstrated that methane can replace hydrogen in the hydrogen activation step.