DUGi

The Activation Mechanism of Ru-Indenylidene Complexes in Olefin Metathesis

http://dugi.udg.edu/item/http:@@@@hdl.handle.net@@10256@@8649

Olefin metathesis is a powerful tool for the formation of carbon-carbon double bonds. Several families of well-defined ruthenium (Ru) catalysts have been developed during the past 20 years; however, the reaction mechanism for all such complexes was assumed to be the same. In the present study, the initiation mechanism of Ru-indenylidene complexes was examined and compared with that of benzylidene counterparts. It was discovered that not all indenylidene complexes followed the same mechanism, highlighting the importance of steric and electronic properties of so-called spectator ligands, and that there is no single mechanism for the Ru-based olefin metathesis reaction. The experimental findings are supported quantitatively by DFT calculations

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no CP-FP 211468-2 EUMET. SPN is a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. LC thanks BSC (QCM-2010-2-0020), and the HPC team of Enea for using the ENEA-GRID and the HPC facilities CRESCO in Portici (Italy) for access to remarkable computational resources. AP thanks the Spanish MICINN for a Ramon y Cajal contract (RYC-2009-05226), Generalitat de Catalunya (2012BE100824) and European Commission for a Career Integration Grant (CIG09-GA-2011-293900)

American Chemical Society