Patent ID: 8642003

Claim:
A method for producing hydrogen comprising the steps of: i) contacting a compound (C) comprising one or more groups Si—H with a phosphorous based catalyst in the presence of a base in water as solvent, thereby forming hydrogen and a by-product (C1); wherein said phosphorous based catalyst is selected from a compound of formula X 1 X 2 X 3 P(═O) wherein: X 1 , X 2 , X 3 are each, independently selected from C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 1 -C 6 alkoxy, NR a R b , C 6 -C 10 aryl, aralkyl, 5 to 7 membered heteroaryl; wherein said alkyl or aryl groups are optionally substituted by one to three R e ; or X 1 and X 2 together form with the phosphorous atom to which they are attached a 3 to 10 membered heterocycloalkyl optionally substituted by R d ; and X 3 is as defined above or X 3 is -L-P(═O)X 1 X 2 , wherein L is C 1 -C 6 alkylene or C 6 -C 10 arylene and X 1 , X 2 are as defined above; wherein: R a and R b are each independently selected from C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 6 -C 10 aryl or together form with the phosphorous atom to which they are attached a heterocyclyl optionally substituted by one to three R e ; R c , R d and R e are each independently selected from Cl, Br, I, F, OH, C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 1 -C 6 alkoxy, NO 2 , NH 2 , CN, COOH; a polymer-supported catalyst bearing one or more groups R a R b (P═O)—, wherein R a and R b are each independently selected from C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 6 -C 10 aryl or together form with the phosphorous atom to which they are attached a heterocyclyl optionally substituted by one to three R e ; ii) recovering the obtained hydrogen.