Ethers, acid cleavage metal complexes

The above reactions in this section have been examples of addition alone or addition followed by elimination. Ligand reactions involving nucleophilic substitution are also known and these are of the dealkylation type. Lewis acids such as aluminum chloride or tin(IV) chloride have been used for many years in the selective demethylation of aromatic methyl ethers, where chelation is involved (Scheme 27). Similar cleavage of thioethers, specially using mercury(II) salts, is commonly used to remove thioacetal functions masking ketones (equation 27).104 In some cases, reactions of metal ions with thioether ligands result in isolation of complexes of the dealkylated organic moiety (equations 28 and 29).105-107... 

The oxidation catalyst is believed to be ruthenium tetraoxide based on work by Engle,149 who showed that alkenes could be cleaved with stoichiometric amounts of ruthenium tetraoxide. Suitable solvents for the Ru/peracid systems are water and hexane, the alkene (if liquid) and aromatic compounds. Complex-ing solvents like dimethylformamide, acetonitrile and ethers, and the addition of nitrogen-complexing agents decrease the catalytic system s activity. It has also been found that the system has to be carefully buffered otherwise the yield of the resulting carboxylic acid drops drastically.150 The influence of various ruthenium compounds has also been studied, and generally most simple and complex ruthenium salts are active. The two exceptions are Ru-red and Ru-metal, which are both inferior to the others. Ruthenium to olefin molar ratios as low as 1/20000 will afford excellent cleavage yields (> 70%). vic-Diols are also... 

The coordination and organometallic chemistry of zirconium and hafnium are surveyed for the year 1991.107,108 There is useful material in a review of homogeneous Group 4 metallocene Ziegler-Natta catalysts, a review of the coordination chemistry of cyclopentadienyl titanium carboxylate and related complexes O and a review of bis(cycIopentadienyl)zirconium(IV) or hafnium(IV) complexes with Si-, Ge-, Sn-, N-, P-, As-, Sb-, 0-, S-, Se-, Te- or transition metal-centred anionic ligands. Cationic zirconocene or hafiiocene complexes serve as Lewis acids with unique reactivities, they are active for C-F bond activation, coordinative activation of ether linkages, carbonyl activation and C-O bond cleavage. New synthetic methods based on the... 

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