Germanium hydrides as an efficient hydrogen-storage material operated by an iron catalyst

Abstract

The use of metal hydrides such as NaBH₄ as hydrogen-storage materials has recently received substantial research attention on account of the worldwide demand for the development of efficient hydrogen-production, -storage, and -transportation systems. Here, we report the quantitative production of H₂ gas from a germanium hydride, Ph₂GeH₂, mediated by an iron catalyst at room temperature via dehydrogenative coupling, concomitant with the formation of (GePh₂)₅. Of particular importance is that Ph₂GeH₂ can be facilely recovered from (GePh₂)₅ by contact with 1 atm of H₂ or PhICl₂/LiAlH₄ at 0 °C or 40 °C, respectively. A detailed reaction mechanism for the iron-catalyzed dehydrogenative coupling of Ph₂GeH₂ is proposed based on the isolation of four intermediate iron species.