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Updated: Jul 12, 2025

The Synthesis, Characterization and Reactivity of a Series of Ruthenium N-triphosPh Complexes
Published on: April 10, 2015
Triazole-modified Ru-carbene complexes: A valid olefin metathesis pre-catalyst for dynamic covalent chemistry via C=C
Chenhuan Wang1, Shuyao Zhang1, Teng Yuan1
1Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Abstract:
The 1,2,3-triazole coordinated ruthenium carbene complexes (TA-Ru) were reported for the first time as a new class of modified Grubbs catalyst to achieve challenging olefin metathesis at higher temperatures without catalyst decomposition. Previously reported N-tethered Ru-carbene complexes all suffered from rapid cis/trans isomerization, causing significantly reduced catalyst reactivity. These new TA-Ru complexes hold the active trans-dichloro conformation even at 80 °C, allowing effective olefin metathesis for challenging substrates. With this new TA-Ru catalyst, cross-metathesis (CM), ring-closing metathesis (RCM) and dynamic covalent chemistry (DCvC) were achieved. Excitingly, the reactivity of TA-Ru prevails all previously reported N-coordinated Ru-carbene precatalysts, Grubbs II, and Hoveyda-Grubbs, making the TA-Ru a transformative catalytic system in olefin catalysis.
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