Contrary to popular opinion, two H atoms from the same H2 molecule can end up in the same product molecule and retain their spin correlation during heterogeneous hydrogenation on supported metal catalysts and thus produce parahydrogen-induced nuclear spin polarization in the reaction products (see picture). For 0.6-nm Pt clusters on alumina, the contribution of the pairwise addition route in the hydrogenation of propylene amounts to at least 3 %.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Kovtunov et al. (2008) studied this question.