Transition metals early research applications

Indium and gallium coordination compounds containing phosphine ligands have recently aroused interest for their widespread application as intermediates in the preparation of the Group 13 - Group 14 semiconductors [4], Since the early reports about compounds with transition metal-indium bonds [51, relatively little research has been reported in this field. However there is a growing interest in the coordination chemistry and structural features of heterometallic indium [6] and gallium complexes [7] which are also attractive as potential precursors of new materials with particular properties. 

In this chapter we will discuss a few topics in the area of alkene polymerisations catalysed by homogeneous complexes of early and late transition metals (ETM, LTM). One of the main research themes for the ETM catalysts has been the polymerisation of propene, while industries have also paid a lot of attention to metallocenes giving LLDPE (linear low-density polyethylene, for thinner plastic bags). In less than a decade a completely new family of catalysts has been developed which enables one to synthesise regioselective and stereoselective polymers of a wide variety of monomers. These new catalysts are starting to find application on industrial scale, but as yet only reports on commercialisation of (branched) polyethylene and polystyrene have appeared. 

The formal addition of a C-H bond at activated methylenes and methynes (pronucleophiles) to activated alkenes in the presence of a base is well known as the Michael reaction (Scheme 1, Type A) [1]. In modem organic syntheses, the use of transition metal (TM) catalysts enables the C-H addition of activated methylenes and methynes to activated alkenes perfectly under neutral conditions (Scheme 1, Type B) [2]. In general, the nonfunctionalized carbon-carbon multiple bonds (for example, EWG2 = H in Scheme 1) are unreactive toward carbon nucleophiles because of their electron rich Jt-orbitals. The pioneering efforts by various research groups resulted in the development of transition metal-catalyzed addition of a C-H bond at active alkanes to such unactivated C-C multiple bonds. This reaction consists of the formal addition of a C-H bond across the C-C multiple bonds and is called a hydrocarbonation reaction. As a milestone in this hydro-carbonation area, early in the 1970s, Takahashi et al. reported the Pd-catalyzed addition of the C-H bond of pronucleophiles to 1,3-dienes [3], The first Pd-catalyzed reaction of activated methylenes with unsubstituted allenes was apparently reported by Coulson [4]. The synthetic applications of this reaction were very limited. In the last decade, the Pd-catalyzed addition of C-H bonds to various unacti-... 

This paper has provided, we believe, a comprehensive, up-to-date, critical, and objective review on the discovery and the subsequent fast development of living radical polymerizations catalyzed by transition-metal complexes in the period from 1994 to early 2001. These metal-catalyzed living radical polymerizations have rapidly been developing since their discovery in 1994, and the scope of applicable monomers, metal catalysts, and initiators has been expanding. Their advantages include versatility toward a variety of monomers, feasibility in a wide range of reaction conditions, and relatively easy access to the materials. This permits many researchers to use the systems for the precision synthesis of various polymers with controlled architectures. 

In recent years, significant research effort has been directed toward identification of new methods for benzimidazole synthesis. Recent advances, particularly in transition metal-mediated reactions, have ushered in novel synthetic approaches for the construction and functionalization of this useful ring system. The present overview of new transition metal-mediated synthetic approaches focuses primarily on methodologies reported from 2008 to early 2012 that may soon find broader application in drug synthesis. 

The Amsterdam Density Functional package (ADF) is software for first-principles electronic structure calculations (quantum chemistry). ADF is often used in the research areas of catalysis, inorganic and heavy-element chemistry, biochemistry, and various types of spectroscopy. ADF is based on density functional theory (DFT) (see Chapter 2.39), which has dominated quantum chemistry applications since the early 1990s. DFT gives superior accuracy to Hartree-Fock theory and semi-empirical approaches, especially for transition-metal compounds. In contrast to conventional correlated post-Hartree-Fock methods, it enables accurate treatment of systems with several hundreds of atoms (or several thousands with QM/MM)." ... 

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