METAL-CATALYZED ALKYLATION OF ALKENES

C-11-labelled hexane was produced via a two-temperature surface reaction involving I-pentene and (CO)-C-11 over two different catalysts: 5%Ru/SiO2 and 5.3%Ru-0.7%V/SiO2. Fragmentation of 1-pentene followed by recombination of these fragments also resulted in the formation of other labelled products from C-1-C-5. The selectivity towards labelled n-hexane production was found to be dependent on the CO adsorption temperature and on the quantity of CO adsorbed. There was an observed increase in the activation energy for the coupling reaction with the promotion of the Ru catalyst with V. A difference in the n-/iso-ratio between labelled and non-labelled products provided evidence for the existence of different reaction pathways leading to the formation of iso-hexane and n-hexane.