Oxidative addition of a dinuclear and divalent vanadium hydride to an olefin C-H bond, leading to catalytic hydrogenation

The dinuclear and divalent hydride complex {[(Me3Si)N=P(Ph)(2)C(H)P(Ph)(2)=N(SiMe3)]V}(2)(mu -H)(2) (1) performs oxidative addition to the styrene P-C-H bond, affording the novel dinuclear trivalent vanadium complex {[(Me3Si)N=P(Ph)(2)C(H)P(Ph)(2)=N(SiMe3)]V}2(H)-(mu -H)(2)(mu,eta (1):eta (2)-CHCHPh) (2). Room-temperature hydrogenolysis re-formed 1 and ethylbenzene in catalytic fashion. Reaction of 1 with ethylene afforded instead the mixed-valence {[(Me3Si)N=P(Ph)(2)C(H)P(Ph)(2)= N(SiMe3)]V}(2)(mu -H)(3) (3) and a mixture of 2-butene and 3-methyl-1,4-pentadiene.