Hydrogen/Deuterium (H/D) Exchange Catalysis in Alkanes

The catalytic exchange of hydrogen and deuterium (H/D exchange) in light alkanes has been studied for almost a century. While alkanes and their C-H bonds are relatively inert, H/D exchange studies have shown that a large number of materials can catalytically activate these bonds. These studies helped elucidate the mechanisms by which alkane C-H bonds interact with catalytic materials. This Review serves to highlight this area of research, focusing on two main classes of heterogeneous materials, metals and metal oxides, and their trends in reactivities and selectivities are described in detail. Furthermore, the ability of these materials to carry out C-H bond activation and H/D exchange catalysis is compared with that of molecular organometallic complexes, and the mechanistic relationships and similarities in these processes are proposed.