Kinetics of Reductive Elimination from Platinum(IV) as a Probe for Nonthermal Effects in Microwave-Heated Reactions

To test the hypothesis that microwave heating effects the nonthermal acceleration of reactions proceeding through polarized transition states, the kinetics and product ratios of the strongly medium-dependent thermolyses of (DPPE)Pt(CH 3 ) 3 O 2 CCH 3 ( 1 ) under microwave and conventional heating conditions were compared. No evidence of nonthermal effects was observed in this reaction, although failure to apply stirring resulted in significant differences in the thermal conditions and reaction rates achieved by the two heating methods.