Reaction mechanism of hydrogen activation by frustrated Lewis pairs

TL;DR

This paper reviews the reaction mechanism of hydrogen activation by frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs), highlighting recent developments and clarifying debates on how FLPs activate hydrogen for potential industrial use.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive summary of the current understanding of H2 activation by FLPs, including reaction pathways and factors influencing reactivity, serving as a guideline for future research.

Findings

Preorganization of FLPs enhances reactivity

Reaction pathway involves polarization of H-H bond

Reactivity influenced by steric and electronic factors

Abstract

Typically, a Lewis acid and a base react with each other and form classic acid base adducts. The neutralization reaction is however prevented by the introduction of bulky substitutes and this interesting finding leads to a new concept called frustrated Lewis pairs, FLPs. Since both reactivities of Lewis acids and bases are remained in the same systems, FLPs have been shown many important applications. One of them is hydrogen activation, which showed for the first time the use of a non metal catalyst for that purpose. In this mini review, we have summarized all important findings regarding the H2 activation by FLPs. This includes preorganisation of FLPs, reaction path for the activation, polarization of HH bond and the factors affected the reactivity. In light of some recent developments, we aim to clarify the reaction mechanism for the H2 actitation by FLPs, which has been under debate for decades since the first discovery of FLPs. We believe that this mini review can be served as a guideline for the future fundamental studies and industrial applications.