Electrophilic Platinum Complexes:  Catalytic Reductive Elimination of Ethane from a Tetramethylplatinum(IV) Complex

The reductive elimination of ethane from the thermally stable complex [PtMe 4 (dppe)] (dppe = Ph 2 PCH 2 CH 2 PPh 2 ) is catalyzed by electrophiles such as [PtMe(O 3 SCF 3 )(dppe)] by a mechanism involving methyl group abstraction to give [PtMe 3 (dppe)] +, reductive elimination to give ethane and [PtMe(dppe)] +, and then methyl group return to give [PtMe 2 (dppe)]. The reactions give insight into potential C−C bond activation mechanisms.