Organolanthanide complexes homogeneous catalysis

Organolanthanide complexes differ from late d-block transition metal complexes in several aspects. They are electrophilic, kinetically labile and lack conventional oxidative addition/reductive elimination pathways in their reactions. They have alternative mechanisms to perform catalytic transformations and are being increasingly used in homogeneous catalysis. The hydrophosphination reaction was proposed to proceed through the cycle depicted in... 

However, there is still a lot to do. The development of highly active activatorless olefin polymerization catalysts and chiral versions of these families of complexes and the stereoblock polymerization of racemic cyclic esters are still the challenges. So, the application of organolanthanide complexes in homogeneous catalysis will continue to be an attractive field for organometallic chemists and there are many opportunities for the future. 

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