Ruthenium reactions with halogens

It has been shown that the mechanistic pathway for these reactions can be complex. Thus, for ruthenium, the oxidation of Ru3(CO)12 with halogens, X2 (X = Cl, Br, I), gives a mixture of the monomeric cis-... 

The initial ruthenium(II) catalyst 66 abstracts a halogen (either chlorine or bromine) from the substrate forming a ruthenium(III) species 67. This is followed by pi complexation (68), radical addition (69) and halogen atom transfer to form the desired product (70). Starting from 65a, enantioselectivities of the resulting product 70a ranged from 20 to 40% ee with excellent chemical yields [28]. Reactions with a slightly different substrate bromotrichloromethane (65b) provided 70b in 32% ee, and a poor yield of 26% [29]. 

Haloform reactions are generally performed with halogens in the presence of hydroxide [251] or directly with hypohalites [252]. Alternative methods affording carboxylic acids from methyl ketones (or other enolizable substrates) include the aerobic oxidation in the presence of a catalytic amount of dinitrobenzene [253] with a base in a dipolar aprotic solvent such as DMF [254] or HMPT (hexamethylphospho-ric triamide) [255, 256] and the use of stoichiometric quantities of hypervalent iodide derivatives [95, 257] or nitrosylpentacyanoferrate [258]. Furthermore, metal catalysts can be used, and systems such as tert-butyl hydroperoxide in the presence of rhenium oxide [259], oxygen in combination with a copper complex [260], heteropolyacids [261] and Mn"/Co" systems [262] were found to be applicable. Finally, aryl ketones are selectively oxidized to aliphatic carboxylic acids by treatment with periodate [81] in the presence of ruthenium trichloride [263]. 

There are three important routes to the formation of the mercury-transition metal bond (a) displacement of halogen or pseudohalogen from mercury(II) salts with carbonyl metallate anions (b) reaction of a halo-phenylmercury compound with a transition metal hydride and (c) oxidative addition of a mercury halide to neutral zero valent metals.1 We report here the syntheses of three compounds containing three-centre, two-electron, mercury-ruthenium bonds utilizing trinuclear cluster anions and mercury(II) halides.2-4... 

The chapter will broadly survey the literature dealing with ruthenium-catalyzed reactions involving the cleavage of an otherwise unreactive carbon-hydrogen and carbon-halogen bonds in organic synthesis up to the early stages of 2003. Only limited... 

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