Synergic effects between N-heterocyclic carbene and chelating benzylidene-ether ligands toward the initiation step of Hoveyda-Grubbs type Ru complexes

Synergic effects between ancillary N-heterocyclic carbenes [(1,3-bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)-1,3-imidazoline-2-ylidene or 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-1,3-imidazoline-2-ylidene] and chelating benzylidene ether ligands were investigated by studying initiation rates and kinetic profiles of Hoveyda-Grubbs (HG) type Ru complexes. A newly designed Ru-benzylidene-oxazinone precatalyst 4 was compared with Grela and Blechert complexes bearing modified isopropyloxy chelating leaving groups and with the standard HG complex to understand how the ancillary and the leaving ligands interact and influence the catalytic activity

Novel Olefin Metathesis Ruthenium Catalysts Bearing Backbone- Substituted Unsymmetrical NHC Ligands

none3noStable Ru-based catalysts containing unsym- metrical N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands with phenyl substituents on the backbone in syn and anti stereochemical relationships have been easily prepared and fully characterized. Preliminary investigation revealed that, depending on the backbone configuration, the new Ru complexes displayed different catalytic behaviors in representative olefin metathesis reactions.noneVeronica Paradiso; Valerio Bertolasi; Fabia GrisiVeronica, Paradiso; Bertolasi, Valerio; Fabia, Gris

Olefin metathesis by Grubbs−Hoveyda complexes : computational and experimental studies of the mechanism and substrate-dependent kinetics

The potential energy surfaces for the activation of Grubbs−Hoveyda-type precatalysts with the substrates ethene, propene, 1-hexene, and ethyl vinyl ether (EVE) have been probed at the density functional theory (DFT) (M06-L) level. The energetically favored pathway of the reaction leading to a 14e Fischer carbene and styrene starts with an initiation step in which the incoming substrate and outgoing alkene ligand are both clearly associated with the ruthenium center. For these substrates, with the exception of ethene, the rate determining step is predicted to be the formation of the metallocyclobutane (MCB). We have taken the initial reactant to be a weak van der Waals complex between substrate and precatalyst. This model yields good agreement between the computed activation parameters for both the parent Grubbs−Hoveyda and Grela complex with EVE substrate, and the experimental values, reported here. The alternative model which takes the initial reactant to be two isolated molecules requires an estimate of the entropy loss on formation of the initial complex in solution which is difficult to evaluate. Our estimate of this quantity yields a barrier for the rate determining step for the interchange mechanism which is close to the value we find for the alternative mechanism in which the rate determining step is the initial dissociation of the precatalyst. The relative energetics of these two mechanisms involving different initiation steps but with similar activation barriers, could well be dependent upon the precatalyst and substrate in line with the recent experimental findings of Plenio and co-workers

Synthesis of N-heterocyclic carbene ligands and derived ruthenium olefin metathesis catalysts

We describe the synthesis of commonly used free N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), 1,3-bis-(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene (IMes) and 1,3-bis-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene (IPr), and of the two corresponding ruthenium-based metathesis complexes. The complex containing IMes was found to be highly efficient in macrocyclizations involving ring-closing metatheses (RCM), whereas the complex featuring the IPr ligand shows excellent activity in both RCM and cross metathesis because of its greater stability. The free carbenes IMes and IPr are isolated in four steps, with an overall yield of similar to 50%. They are then used to replace a labile phosphine in precatalysts belonging to two families of ruthenium-containing complexes, benzylidene and indenylidene types, respectively. Such complexes are isolated as analytically pure compounds with 77% and 95% yield. The total time for the synthesis of the free NHCs is 56 h, and incorporation in complexes requires an additional 4-5 h.</p