Silica-immobilised amine-platinum complexes as hydrosilylation catalysts

A simple method has been used to assess the efficiency of a variety of platinumamine compexes anchored to silica and anionic complexes supported on a silica-based ion-exchanger in the catalysis of the hydrosilylation of dec-1-ene by (Me₃SiO)₂Si(H)Me. In all cases, platinum was leached from the support, so that the catalyst became less active on each re-use. A rough correlation between extent of leaching and activity suggested that the effective catalysis was actually occurring homogeneously. The silane was responsible for the leaching.