Cyclometalated ruthenium allow the effective and selective N-methylation of anilines under mild conditions.

This study reports an efficient and practical synthetic approach for the synthesis of a particularly important class of polymerizable quaternary ammonium salts (PQASs), that is, acryloxyalkyltriethylammonium bromides (AATEABs), which may find application as antimicrobial coatings for commercial membranes with antifouling and anti‐biofouling properties, to be used for wastewater treatment. The synthetic method is based on a simple two‐step procedure from commercially available substrates, entirely carried out under air and without any need for chromatographic purification. All the newly synthesized AATEABs were tested for their antimicrobial activity, and the results showed that AATEABs bearing an alkyl chain of 11 and particularly 12 carbon atoms possessed significant activity against Gram positive bacteria and yeast strains.

Ruthenium PNP pincer complexes bearing supplementary cyclometalated C,N‐bound ligands have been prepared and fully characterized for the first time. By replacing CO and H− as ancillary ligands in such complexes, additional electronic and steric modifications of this topical class of catalysts are possible. The advantages of the new catalysts are demonstrated in the general α‐alkylation of ketones with alcohols following a hydrogen autotransfer protocol. Herein, various aliphatic and benzylic alcohols were applied as green alkylating agents for ketones bearing aromatic, heteroaromatic or aliphatic substituents as well as cyclic ones. Mechanistic investigations revealed that during catalysis, Ru carboxylate complexes are predominantly formed whereas neither the PNP nor the CN ligand are released from the catalyst in significant amounts.