A two-color fluorogenic carbene complex for tagging olefins via metathesis reaction
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Updated: Feb 18, 2026

Isolating Free Carbenes, their Mixed Dimers and Organic Radicals
Published on: April 19, 2019
Marcel Wirtz1, Andreas Grüter1, Florian Heib2
1Biophysical Chemistry, Saarland University Campus Building B2.2, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.
Abstract:
We describe a fluorogenic ruthenium (II) carbene complex in which the chromophore is directly connected to the metal center. The compound introduces a boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) moiety into target double bonds by metathesis. Tagging of terminal double bonds is demonstrated on immobilized styrene units on a glass surface. We also show that two compounds with distinguishable fluorescence properties are formed in the model reaction with styrene. The outcome of the metathesis reaction is characterized by 19F-NMR, optical spectroscopy, and, finally, single-molecule trajectories. This labeling scheme, in our perception, is of particular interest in the fields of interfacial science and biorthogonal ligation in combination with super-resolution imaging.
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