Ruthenium-catalyzed generation of hydrogen from iso-propanol

The dehydrogenation reaction of iso-propanol has been investigated in the absence of a hydrogen acceptor. Among different transition metals tested various ruthenium precursors in the presence of phosphine ligands proved to be active catalysts. Best results (turnover frequencies up to 155 h−1 after 2 h) were achieved with RuCl3·xH2O and 2-di-tert-butyl-phosphinyl-1-phenyl-1H-pyrrole 4 at low temperature (90 °C).