According to popular belief, oxygen and water are the natural enemies of organometallic reactions and therefore must be excluded rigorously from the reaction vessel. This belief is founded in the case of the highly reactive nucleophilic metal alkylidene complexes that were used in early catalytic olefin metathesis. However, owing to the high stability of the ruthenium carbene complexes introduced by Grubbs, metathesis in water has become reality.

The synthesis, characterization, and ROM polymerization activity of two ruthenium-based metathesis initiators bearing chelating carbene ligands with imine functionalities and N-heterocyclic carbene ligands are presented.

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