Ruthenium catalysts carbon-oxygen double bond

The most obvious way to reduce an aldehyde or a ketone to an alcohol is by hydro genation of the carbon-oxygen double bond Like the hydrogenation of alkenes the reac tion IS exothermic but exceedingly slow m the absence of a catalyst Finely divided metals such as platinum palladium nickel and ruthenium are effective catalysts for the hydrogenation of aldehydes and ketones Aldehydes yield primary alcohols... 

In the case of lead ruthenate, the oxygen non-stoichiometry concept can be developed further by combining it with the known reactions of the variable valence ruthenium. It has been shown in this work that these same catalysts can cleave carbon-carbon double bonds (3) in a manner analogous to that of osmium and ruthenium tetroxiHe (1,1). It is known (12) that OSO4 (and presumably RUO4) cleave olefins via complexes with the structure ... 

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