ConspectusOne of the most important challenges in catalyst
design is the
synthesis of stable promoters without compromising their activity.
For this reason, it is important to understand the factors leading
to decomposition of such catalysts, especially if side-products negatively
affect the activity and selectivity of the starting complex. In this
context, the understanding of termination and decomposition processes
in olefin metathesis is receiving significant attention from the scientific
community. For example, the decomposition of ruthenium olefin metathesis
precatalysts in alcohol solutions can occur during either the catalyst
synthesis or the metathesis process, and such decomposition has been
found to be common for Grubbs-type precatalysts. These decomposition
products are usually hydridocarbonyl complexes, which are well-known
to be active in several transformations such as hydrogenation, terminal
alkene isomerization, and C–H activation chemistry. The reactivity
of these side products can be unwanted, and it is
therefore important to understand how to avoid them and maybe also
important to keep an open mind and think of ways to use these in other
catalytic reactions.A showcase of these decomposition studies
is reported in this Account.
These reports analyze the stability of ruthenium phenylindenylidene
complexes, highly active olefin metathesis precatalysts, in basic
alcohol solutions. Several different decomposition processes can occur
under these conditions depending on the starting complex and the alcohol
used. These indenylidene-bearing metathesis complexes display a completely
different behavior compared with that of other metathesis precatalysts
and show an alternative competitive alcoholysis pathway, where rather
than forming the expected hydrido carbonyl complexes, the indenylidene
fragment is transformed into a η1-indenyl, which
then rearranges to its η5-indenyl form. In particular,
[RuCl(η5-(3-phenylindenylidene)(PPh3)2] has been found to be extremely active in numerous transformations
(at least 20) as well as compatible with a broad
range of reaction conditions, rendering it a versatile catalytic tool.
It should be stated that the η5-phenyl indenyl ligand
shows enhanced catalytic activity over related half-sandwich ruthenium
complexes. The analogous half-sandwich (cyclopentadienyl and indenyl)
ruthenium complexes show lower activity in transfer hydrogenation
and allylic alcohol isomerization reactions. In addition, this catalyst
allows access to new phenylindenyl ruthenium complexes, which can
be achieved in a very straightforward manner and have been successfully
used in catalysis. This Account provides an overview of how mechanistic
insights into decomposition and stability of a well-known family of
ruthenium metathesis precatalysts has resulted in a series of novel
and versatile ruthenium complexes with unexpected reactivity.