Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 4, Issue 8, 2000

The number of asymmetric transformations catalyzed by chiral transition metal complexes is growing exponentially. With this growth, application to kinetic resolution processes is also blossoming. These include metal salen complexes for epoxide opening, reductions, and recent examples of Sharpless oxidation methods. Great strides have been made in Zr-catalyzed carbon-carbon bond formations and Mo-catalyzed olefin me Read More

Under the conditions originally developed by Taber and Nugent, a 1,6- or a 1,7-diene will smoothly condense with zirconocene to give the intermediate metallacycle. While these zirconacycles can be isolated and characterized, they usually are carried on directly, by reaction with a suitable electrophile (e.g. O2, or CO), to give the organic product. As zirconium is inexpensive, the procedure is operationally simple, an Read More

One of the current approaches to prepare enantiomerically pure materials is to use catalytic quantities of chiral transition metal complexes in a homogeneous medium. The catalytic activity originates from the metal and the asymmetry of the metal - catalysed process is induced by the chiral organic ligands attached to that metal. Commonly used donor atoms, which include phosphorus, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur, help to ele Read More

The application of acyclic (diene)iron complexes and (pentadienyl)iron cations in organic synthesis has steadily increased over the past 20 years. This is due to their ease of preparation, their stability toward a wide variety of reaction conditions, the manifold method for removal of the Fe(CO)3 group, and the low cost of iron carbonyls. The (tricarbonyl)iron adjunct may serve in three capacities: i) as a protecting group for conjug Read More