Ruthenium complexes unsaturated 16-electron

In 2002, Kiindig et al. [23, 24] developed catalytic DCR between diaryl nitrones and a,(3-unsaturated aldehydes in the presence of Binop-F iron and ruthenium complexes as chiral Lewis-acid catalysts (Scheme 6). The corresponding cycloadducts were obtained in good yields with complete endo selectivity and up to 94% ee. The isoxazolidine products were obtained as a mixture of regioi-somers in molar ratios varying from 96 4 to 15 85. Experimental and computational data show that the regioselectivity correlates directly with the electronic properties of the nitrone. 

The CM of olefins bearing electron-withdrawing functionalities, such as a,/ -unsaturated aldehydes, ketones, amides, and esters, allows for the direct installment of olefin functionality, which can either be retained or utilized as a synthetic handle for further elaboration. The poor nucleophilicity of electron-deficient olefins makes them challenging substrates for olefin CM. As a result, these substrates must generally be paired with more electron-rich crosspartners to proceed. In one of the initial reports in this area, Crowe and Goldberg found that acrylonitrile could participate in CM reactions with various terminal olefins using catalyst 1 (Equation (2))." Acrylonitrile was found not to be active in secondary metathesis isomerization, and no homodimer formation was observed, making it a type III olefin. In addition, as mentioned in Section 11.06.3.2, this reaction represents one of the few examples of Z-selectivity in CM. Subsequent to this report, ruthenium complexes 6 and 7a were also observed to function as competent catalysts for acrylonitrile... 

As already indicated, carbonyl compounds such as ketones, aldehydes, enones, and quinones possess the property to act as effective electron acceptors in the excited state for generating radical anions in the presence of electron-donating partners such as alkenes, aromatics, ruthenium complexes, amines, and alcohols. We will not consider the reactivity of enones and quinones, but we will focus our attention on the behavior of the radical anions formed from ketones and aldehydes. Four different processes can occur from these radical anions including coupling of two radical anions and/or coupling of the radical anion with the radical cation formed from the donor, abstraction of hydrogen from the reaction media to produce alcohols, cyclization, in the case of ce-unsaturated radical anions, and fragmentation when a C -X bond (X=0, C) is present (Scheme 18). 

Among the NHCs used in the preparation of ruthenium complexes so far, the most successful and frequentiy studied complexes were those bearing imidazole-or imidazolin-2-ylidene ligands. As mentioned earlier, studies conducted by Nolan and coworkers on saturated and unsaturated NHCs bearing ruthenium complexes on metathesis activity suggested that a slight variation in the electronic and steric properties can induce a large difference on catalytic activity [33]. 

These transition-metal catalysts contain electronically coupled hydridic and acidic hydrogen atoms that are transferred to a polar unsaturated species under mild conditions. The first such catalyst was Shvo s diruthenium hydride complex reported in the mid 1980s [41 14], Noyori and Ikatiya developed chiral ruthenium catalysts showing excellent enantioselectivity in the hydrogenation of ketones [45,46]. 

A more recent addition to the half-sandwich chemistry of ruthenium is given by a number of complexes where the central metal obeys a 16 valence electron count. These coordinatively unsaturated (see Coordinative Saturation Unsaturation) metal centers are widely invoked as intermediates or transition states in dissociative substitution processes or in catalytic transformations at transition metal centers. Such complexes are not, however, easily isolated. The most common way to stabilize such species is by coordinating sterically bulky ligands to the metal, thereby preventing further ligand addition. They can also be stabilized in the form of dimeric complexes. 

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