Highly Efficient Base-Free Dehydrogenation of Formic Acid at Low Temperature.

The ruthenium complex [RuH2 (PPh3 )4 ] is a competent catalyst for the selective dehydrogenation of formic acid (FA) at low temperature. It tolerates water and shows excellent performance (TOF up to 36 000 h-1 at 60 °C). Remarkably, no basic additives are necessary to obtain such high activity and the defined complex is stable for up to 120 days, making this system one of the most effective formic acid dehydrogenation catalysts known to date.