Formic acid dehydrogenation using Ruthenium-POP pincer complexes in ionic liquids.

Formic acid is one of the most promising candidates for the long-term storage of hydrogen in liquid form. Herein, we present a new collection of ruthenium pincer complexes of the general formula [RuHCl(POP)(PPh)] using commercially available or easy-to-synthesize tridentate xantphos-type POP pincer ligands. We applied these complexes in the dehydrogenation of formic acid to CO and H using the ionic liquid BMIM OAc (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate) as solvent under mild, reflux-free conditions.