Developing a Highly Active Catalytic System Based on Cobalt Nanoparticles for Terminal and Internal Alkene Hydrosilylation

This work describes the development of easy-to-prepare cobalt nanoparticles (NPs) in solution as promising alternative catalysts for alkene hydrosilylation with the industrially relevant tertiary silane 1,1,1,3,5,5,5-heptamethyltrisiloxane (MDHM). The Co NPs demonstrated high activity when used at 30 °C for 3.5–7 h in toluene, with catalyst loadings 0.05–0.2 mol %, without additives. Under these mild conditions, a set of terminal alkenes were found to react with MDHM, yielding exclusively the anti-Markovnikov product in up to 99% yields. Additionally, we demonstrated the possibility of using UV irradiation to further activate these cobalt NPs not only to enhance their catalytic performances but also to promote tandem isomerization–hydrosilylation reactions using internal alkenes, among them unsaturated fatty ester (methyl oleate), to produce linear products in up to quantitative yields.