Mixtures consisting of
zirconocene difluorides
Cp′2ZrF2 (Cp′ = substituted or nonsubstituted η
5-cyclopentadienyl) as pre-catalysts and diisobutylaluminumhydride
i-Bu
2AlH as activator were found to be active catalysts in the room-temperature hydrodefluorination (HDF) of fluorinated pyridines. Evaluation of these systems established
rac-(ebthi)ZrF
2 (
1) and Cp
2ZrF
2 (
3) together with
i-Bu
2AlH as active catalysts in the room-temperature hydrodefluorination (HDF) of pentafluoro-pyridine. The active species for the conversion were the actually formed hydrides [
rac-(ebthi)ZrH(μ-H)]
2 (
2) and [Cp
2ZrH(μ-H)]
2 (
4). The results we obtained (rt, 24 h, turn over number 67) showed a significantly better performance compared to other investigations published before for this HDF reaction.