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Updated: Mar 18, 2026

A Toolkit to Enable Hydrocarbon Conversion in Aqueous Environments
Published on: October 2, 2012
Ethenolysis: A Green Catalytic Tool to Cleave Carbon-Carbon Double Bonds
Johan Bidange1, Cédric Fischmeister1, Christian Bruneau2
1UMR 6226, CNRS, Université de Rennes 1, Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes, Organometallics, Materials and Catalysis, Centre for Catalysis and Green Chemistry, Campus de Beaulieu, 263 avenue du général Leclerc, 35042, Rennes Cedex, France.
Abstract:
Remarkable innovations have been made in the field of olefin metathesis due to the design and preparation of new catalysts. Ethenolysis, which is cross-metathesis with ethylene, represents one catalytic transformation that has been used with the purpose of cleaving internal carbon-carbon double bonds. The objectives were either the ring opening of cyclic olefins to produce dienes or the shortening of unsaturated hydrocarbon chains to degrade polymers or generate valuable shorter terminal olefins in a controlled manner. This Review summarizes several aspects of this reaction: the catalysts, their degradation in the presence of ethylene, some parameters driving their productivity, the side reactions, and the applications of ethenolysis in organic synthesis and in potential industrial applications.
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