Ruthenium complexes acetamide

Considerable variation in stereocontrol can also occur, depending on the catalyst employed (equation 125). In general, the various rhodium(II) carboxylates and palladium catalysts show little stereocontrol in intermolecular cyclopropanation162,175. Rhodium(II) acetamides and copper catalysts favour the formation of more stable trans (anti) cyclopropanes162166. The ruthenium bis(oxazolinyl)pyridine catalyst [Ru(pybox-ip)] provides extremely high trans selectivity in the cyclopropanation of styrene with ethyl diazoacetate43. Furthermore, rhodium or osmium porphyrin complexes 140 are selective catalysts... 

Dyson and coworkers have reported the biological effect of dichlorido and oxalato derivatives of enantiomerically pure RAPTA-type ruthenium(II) complexes [14]. The enantiomers were synthesized by using a chiral arene (R)- or (S)-2-phenyl-iV-(l-phenylethylene)acetamide) as a ligand (Figure 3.9b). The cytotoxicity of all the epimers was evaluated in human ovarian cancer cells (A2780 and A2780cisR) with the S-enantiomers being more active than the R-enantiomers in both cell lines. Additionally, the dichlorido derivatives showed in vitro selectivity toward cancer cells over healthy HEK cells. 

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