Homogeneous catalysis is from outstanding importance for modern chemical synthesis. In addition to palladium- and nickel-based catalyst systems, which are well established for a long time, also cobalt-based catalysts are known to mediate challenging conversions. The mechanistic details of the letter reactions are not understood in detail till now. In this work electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry is used to detect the elusive intermediates in cobalt-catalyzed cross-coupling, C-H-activation, hydrogenation and polymerization reactions to get insight into the relevant mechanistic processes. Gas-phase fragmentation reactions are used to reveal the unimolecular reactivity of the key intermediates.
Keywords: homogeneous catalysis; analytical chemistry; mass spectrometry
