The new com
plex T
pBr3Ir(C
2H
4)
2,
1,
photochemically activates the C-H bonds of
n-
pentanein a two-ste
p process, the first one being the formation of an isolable alkyl-hy
drideintermediate of com
position T
pBr3Ir(H)(C
2H
4)(C
5H
11),
3a, that subsequently undergoes
-hy
dride elimination to generate a terminal olefin com
plex, T
pBr3Ir(H)
2(C
5H
10),
4a. Thereaction can also be extended to diethyl ether. In this case, the reaction
proceeds by theactivation of one of the
-C-H bonds (with res
pect to the O-ether atom) with formation ofthe alkyl-hy
dride
3b and the dehy
drogenation
product
4b. These
processes also com
petewith the intramolecular C-H activation of one of the coordinated ethylene ligand by theIr(I) center in
1, which affords the hy
dride-vinyl com
plex T
pBr3Ir(H)(CH=CH
2)(C
2H
4),
2.Attem
pts to thermally induce the above transformations has led to the exclusive formationof a mixture of the hy
dride-
pha.gif" BORDER=0>,
-butenyl com
plex T
pBr3Ir(H)(CH
2CH
2CH=CH
2),
5, and thehy
dride-crotyl com
plex T
pBr3Ir(H)(C
4H
7),
6.