DUGi

Exploring new generations of ruthenium olefin metathesis catalysts: the reactivity of a bis-ylidene ruthenium complex by DFT

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Density functional theory calculations were used to predict the behaviour of a potential novel architecture of olefin metathesis catalysts, in which one of the neutral ligands of classical Ru-based catalysts, e. g. a phosphine or an N-heterocyclic carbene, is replaced by an alkylidene group. Introduction of a second alkylidene ligand favors dissociation of the remaining phosphine and the overall energy profile for the metathesis using ethylene as the probe substrate reveals that the proposed bis-alkylidene complexes might match the requirements of a good performing olefin metathesis catalyst

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community鈥檚 Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. CP-FP 211468-2 EUMET. A. P. and L. C. thank 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. A. P. thanks the Spanish MICINN for a Ramon y Cajal contract (RYC-2009-05226), European Commission for a Career Integration Grant (CIG09-GA-2011-293900), and Generalitat de Catalunya (2011BE100793)

Royal Society of Chemistry