Silicon, germanium and tin versions of carbenes make good hydrogen activators for hydrogenation reactions, quantum calculations show. They could take over the role of transition metal catalysts, a team from Amsterdam shows in the European Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Hydrogenation reactions, in which activated hydrogen reacts with another molecule, are usually carried out with catalysts based on (expensive) transition metals. In their search for alternatives, Eveline Tiekink, Siebe Lekanne Deprez, Pascal Vermeeren and Trevor Hamlin from the TheoCheM group at VU University Amsterdam landed on group 14 elements.

Back in 2021, the team had already studied these so-called metallylenes when it was discovered that they could activate hydrogen and other small molecules. Tiekink and her colleagues have now found out whether it is possible to use rational design to develop metallylene catalysts that can carry out hydrogenation reactions. And they can.