Outer sphere catalysts, review

In this species, there is no direct coordination of the ketone to the Ru, but rather an outer-sphere association with an orientation of the ketone such that two H atoms can be transferred from the 18-electron hydride, one coming from the hydridic H and the other from the NHj group. This nonclassical mechanistic pathway is now widely accepted for this class of catalysts and is referred to as metal-ligand bifunctional catalysis. Theoretical work of Andersson and co-workers and Noyori et al. provided support for the mechanism and further details are discussed in a review by Noyori et al. ... 

It should be noted that formation of trans-product can be achieved in an anti-addition reaction through the outer-sphere mechanism. Theoretical studies have demonstrated that syn-addition and anti-addition reactions may start from the same 7i-complex, and direction of the multiple bond activation depends on the polarity of solvent [17, 18]. Relative reactivity in the inner-sphere and outer-sphere mechanisms contributes to the overall -/Z- selectivity of the addition reaction to alkynes (stereoselectivity issue). In some cases it is possible to switch the direction of C-Het bond formation by finding a suitable ligand [19]. In case of alkenes syn-addition and a f -addition processes do not necessarily result in different stereochemistry (unrestricted rotation around the single C-C bond in the product). Occurrence of these mechanisms for the N [20, 21], P [22, 23], O [24-26], S, Se [27, 28] heteroatom groups and application of different metal catalysts are discussed in detail in the other chapters of this book. Stereochemical pathways of nucleometallation and development of enantioselective catalytic procedures were reviewed [29]. In this chapter we focus our attention on the mechanism of irmer-sphere insertion reaction involving double and triple carbon-carbon bonds. 

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