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

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.