Kinetic study on hydrosilylation of ethylene with trimethoxysilane by RuCl3·3H2O doped with iodine

•Ethyltrimethoxysilane was obtained with more than 93% overall yield.•The activation energy of the hydrosilylation reaction reduces dramatically in the presence of iodine.•Ruthenium halides–iodine catalyst system show high activity and selectivity.•The optimal reaction temperature is 60 °C.•Mild reaction conditions, simplified operational procedure.

The hydrosilylation reaction of ethylene gas with trimethoxysilane was investigated and various factors such as the temperature, the reaction time, the dosage of catalyst and the promoter iodine on conversion of trimethoxysilane, and the yield and selectivity of the target product were carefully examined. Ethyltrimethoxysilane was obtained in excellent yields and selectivities in the presence of iodine. A kinetic model on the basis of the consumption of trimethoxysilane was built up for the hydrosilylation reaction catalyzed either by ruthenium trichloride hydrate alone or by ruthenium trichloride hydrate doped with iodine. Kinetic parameters were regressed from the experimental data. The results indicated that the hydrosilylation reaction of ethylene gas with trimethoxysilane was a first order reaction process. With the addition of iodine, the apparent activation energy of this reaction significantly decreased from 56.93 to 29.97 kJ mol−1, which is in good agreement with the results observed in the reaction.

Graphical abstractIn this manuscript, ethyltrimethoxysilane was obtained with more than 93% overall yield in one step in the presence of ruthenium halides as the catalyst and iodine as the co-catalyst. The activation energy of the hydrosilylation reaction reduces dramatically in the presence of iodine.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide