Alkane Metathesis

Abstract

Catalytic activation of alkanes which directly transforms light alkanes into higher homologs is a major area in organometallic chemistry and petrochemical chemistry. This transformation is a chemical challenge considering the inertness of the sp3 carbon-hydrogen bond. It is generally accepted that this catalytic process involves the formation of olefins. This reaction is defined as alkane metathesis. To date, two catalytic systems of alkane metathesis exist: (i) a single catalytic system prepared by surface organometallic chemistry, acting as multifunctional-supported catalyst which transforms any alkanes into a mixture of their lower and higher homologs and (ii) the other catalytic systems employing a tandem strategy with two different metals, one metal for alkane (de)hydrogenation and another for olefin metathesis in which the activity of these catalysts is essentially driven by the performance of the (de)hydrogenation steps. In this book chapter, we would focus on the evolution of these two classes of catalysts by looking at their specific reactivity of the catalysts towards alkanes, comparing their performances and studying the mechanism.