Three mono-N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ruthenium 2-isopropoxybenzylidene (10 a-c) and one bis(NHC) indenylidene complex (8) bearing an unsymmetrical N-heterocyclic carbene ligand were synthesized and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The catalytic activity of the newly obtained complexes were evaluated in ring-closing metathesis (RCM) and ene-yne (RCEYM) reactions in toluene and environmentally friendly 2-MeTHF under air. The results confirmed that although all tested reactions can be successfully mediated by catalysts 10 a-c, their general reactivity is lower than the benchmark all-purpose Ru catalysts with symmetrical NHC ligands. However, the latter cannot compete with specialized ruthenium complex 10 a in industrially relevant self-CM of terminal olefins in neat conditions.

A wide set of 65 diverse Ru metathesis catalysts was investigated in the ethenolysis reaction of biosourced ethyl oleate to allow the comparison between the catalyst structure and its activity and selectivity. Handling of the oleic substrate, weighing of the catalysts, and charging the reactor were done in air, with exclusion of a glovebox or Schlenk techniques. A catalyst bearing the unsymmetrical N-heterocyclic ligand featuring a thiophene fragment ( Ru-63 ) was selected to offer the best combination between high selectivity and sufficient activity under conditions mimicking oil industry practice. A proof-of-concept large-scale ethenolysis experiment was also done with the selected catalyst to prove its high selectivity at the 1 L scale reaction with a 90% pure non-distilled substrate.

N-Heterocyclic carbenes have found many applications in modern metal catalysis, due to the formation of stable metal complexes, and organocatalysis. Among a myriad of N-heterocyclic carbene metal complexes, gold complexes have gained a lot of attention due to their unique propensity for the activation of carbon-carbon multiple bonds, allowing many useful transformations of alkynes, allenes, and alkenes, inaccessible by other metal complexes. The present review summarizes synthetic efforts towards the preparation of chiral N-heterocyclic gold(I) complexes exhibiting C 2 and C 1 symmetry, as well as their applications in enantioselective catalysis. Finally, the emerging area of rare gold(III) complexes and their preliminary usage in asymmetric catalysis is also presented. Scheme 3. The synthesis of a gold(I) complex from (R)-1-aminotetralin.An elegant approach to C2-symmetric gold(I) complexes was described by Czekelius et al. [72] (Scheme 4), inspired by previous Herrmann's work [73]. The synthetic approach involves chiral amines 24, readily available from the corresponding phenylacetic acid 22 via the Friedel-Crafts reaction of bromobenzene and fractional crystallization of the corresponding tartaric acid amine salt upon reductive amination. The resulting amine 24 was further formylated and subjected to Bischler-Napieralski cyclization to give 3-aryl-substituted dihydroisoquinoline 25. Subsequent reductive coupling afforded the basic diamine skeleton 26 into a single diastereomer, which appeared a perfect platform for structural ligand diversification via Suzuki coupling. The functionalized diamines 26 were then cyclized into imidazolium salts 27 with triethyl orthoformate to give the products with yields in the range of 49-94% (for selected examples, see Scheme 4). The formation of gold(I) complexes 28 was accomplished under rather unusual conditions, by the reaction of gold(I) chloride with a carbene generated by the action of KOtBu. Scheme 4. The synthesis of C2-symmetric gold(I) complexes accessible via a reductive coupling. The application of other chiral building blocks has recently been reported by the Toste group (Scheme 5) [74]. Besides chiral amines, amino alcohols 29 were also utilized in the synthesis of C2-Scheme 3. The synthesis of a gold(I) complex from (R)-1-aminotetralin.An elegant approach to C 2 -symmetric gold(I) complexes was described by Czekelius et al. [72] (Scheme 4), inspired by previous Herrmann's work [73]. The synthetic approach involves chiral amines 24, readily available from the corresponding phenylacetic acid 22 via the Friedel-Crafts reaction of bromobenzene and fractional crystallization of the corresponding tartaric acid amine salt upon reductive amination. The resulting amine 24 was further formylated and subjected to Bischler-Napieralski cyclization to give 3-aryl-substituted dihydroisoquinoline 25. Subsequent reductive coupling afforded the basic diamine skeleton 26 into a single diastereomer, which appeared a perfect platform for structural ligand diversification via Suzuki...

N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands IMesNMe2 and IMes(NMe2)2 derived from the well-known IMes ligand by substituting the carbenic heterocycle with one and two dimethylamino groups, respectively, were employed for the synthesis of second-generation Grubbs- and Grubbs-Hoveyda-type ruthenium metathesis precatalysts. Whereas the stability of the complexes was found to depend on the degree of dimethylamino-substitution and on the type of complex, the backbone-substitution was shown to have a positive impact on their catalytic activity in ring-closing metathesis, with a more pronounced effect in the second-generation Grubbs-type series. The new complexes were successfully implemented in a number of challenging olefin metathesis reactions leading to the formation of tetra-substituted C=C double bonds and/or functionalized compounds.

A synthetic route to backbone functionalised imidazolinium salts-NHC ligand precursors has been developed. These tagged NHC ligands can be used to obtain a homogeneous Hoveyda-type catalyst (19) containing a quaternary ammonium group on a C-8 long spacer. Products of olefin metathesis reactions promoted by complex 19 can be readily purified from Ru-residues by filtration of the reaction mixture through a small amount of silica gel.