The reactivity of alcohols can be enhanced by the temporary removal of hydrogen using a transition metal catalyst to generate an intermediate aldehyde or ketone. The so-formed carbonyl compound has a greater reactivity towards nucleophilic addition accommodating the in situ formation of imines or alkenes. The return of hydrogen from the catalyst leads to the formation of new C-N and C-C bonds, often with water as the only reaction by-product.

Pairing iron bis(amide) Fe(HMDS) 2 with Na-(HMDS) to form new sodium ferrate base [(dioxane) 0.5 ·NaFe-(HMDS) 3 ]( 1)e nables regioselective mono and di-ferration (via direct FeÀHexchange) of awide range of fluoroaromatic substrates under mild reaction conditions.T rapping of several ferrated intermediates has provided key insight into how synchronised Na/Fecooperation operates in these transformations.F urthermore,u sing excess 1 at 80 8 8Cs witches on ar emarkable cascade process inducing the collective twofold CÀH/threefold CÀFbond activations,where eachC ÀHbond is transformed to aC ÀFe bond whereas each CÀFb ond is transformed into aC À Nb ond.

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Calcium complexes bearing bis(oxazolinylphenyl)amine (BOPA) ligands have been prepared, and their redistribution chemistry studied. The complexes [Ca(R-BOPA){N(SiMe(3))(2)}(THF)] (R = (i)Pr 1a, Ph 1b and Bn 1c) are active in hydroamination catalysis and give the highest enantioselectivity reported for a calcium complex.