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Updated: Oct 2, 2025

Heterogeneous Removal of Water-Soluble Ruthenium Olefin Metathesis Catalyst from Aqueous Media Via Host-Guest Interaction
Published on: August 23, 2018
Cyclometalated (NNC)Ru(II) complex catalyzed β-methylation of alcohols using methanol
Kasturi Ganguli1, Natalia V Belkova2, Sabuj Kundu1
1Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208016, India. sabuj@iitk.ac.in.
Abstract:
Indolyl fragment containing phenanthroline based new ligands and their corresponding Ru(II) complexes were synthesized and fully characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. The catalytic activity of these newly synthesized cyclometalated (NNC)Ru(II) complexes was explored towards the β-methylation of alcohols using methanol. Notably, these complexes displayed superior reactivity compared to various (NNN)Ru(II) complexes. Utilizing this strategy, a wide range of primary, secondary, and aliphatic straight chain alcohols were selectively methylated. This protocol was further employed for the methylation of a few natural products and the gram scale synthesis of β-methylated alcohols. A series of control experiments and kinetic studies were performed to understand the plausible reaction mechanism.
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