Nickel-catalyzed direct carboxylation of olefins with CO2 : one-pot synthesis of α,ß-unsaturated carboxylic acid salts.

The nickel-catalyzed direct carboxylation of alkenes with the cheap and abundantly available C1 building block carbon dioxide (CO2 ) in the presence of a base has been achieved. The one-pot reaction allows for the direct and selective synthesis of a wide range of α,ß-unsaturated carboxylates (TON>100, TOF up to 6 h(-1) , TON=turnover number, TOF=turnover frequency). Thus, it is possible, in one step, to synthesize sodium acrylate from ethylene, CO2 , and a sodium salt. Acrylates are industrially important products, the synthesis of which has hitherto required multiple steps.

Linker-free, silica-bound olefin-metathesis catalysts: applications in heterogeneous catalysis.

A set of heterogenized olefin-metathesis catalysts, which consisted of Ru complexes with the H(2)ITap ligand (1,3-bis(2',6'-dimethyl-4'dimethyl aminophenyl)-4,5-dihydroimidazol-2-ylidene) that had been adsorbed onto a silica support, has been prepared. These complexes showed strong binding to the solid support without the need for tethering groups on the complex or functionalized silica. The catalysts were tested in the ring-opening-ring-closing-metathesis (RO-RCM) of cyclooctene (COE) and the self-metathesis of methyl oleate under continuous-flow conditions. The best complexes showed a TON>4000, which surpasses the previously reported materials that were either based on the Grubbs-Hoveyda II complex on silica or on the classical heterogeneous Re(2)O(7)/B(2)O(3) catalyst.

The first catalytic synthesis of an acrylate from CO2 and an alkene-a rational approach.

For more than three decades the catalytic synthesis of acrylates from the cheap and abundantly available C(1) building block carbon dioxide and alkenes has been an unsolved problem in catalysis research, both in academia and industry. Herein, we describe a homogeneous catalyst based on nickel that permits the catalytic synthesis of the industrially highly relevant acrylate sodium acrylate from CO(2), ethylene, and a base, as demonstrated, at this stage, by a turnover number of greater than 10 with respect to the metal.

Synthesis of trimethylplatinum(IV) complexes with N,N- and N,O-heterocyclic carbene ligands and their reductive C-C elimination reactions.

Reactions of the platinum(IV) complexes [PtMe(3)(OCMe(2))(3)](BF(4)) (1(BF(4))), [(PtMe(3)I)(4)] (2), and [PtMe(3)I(py)(2)] (3) with the N,N-heterocyclic carbene 1,3-dimethylimidazol-2-ylidene (N,N-hc, 4) resulted in a rapid reductive elimination of ethane, yielding platinum(II) complexes [PtMe(N,N-hc)(3)](+) (7), trans-[PtMeI(N,N-hc)(2)] (8), and cis-[PtMe(py)(N,N-hc)(2)](+) (10), respectively. Subsequent substitution of the iodo ligand in 8 by pyridine resulted in the formation of trans-[PtMe(py)(N,N-hc)(2)](CF(3)COO) (9(CF(3)COO)). 9 and 10 are stereoisomers. In contrast to this, the analogous reaction of [PtMe(3)(OCMe(2))(3)](BF(4)) (1(BF(4))) with the N,O-heterocyclic carbene 3-methyloxazol-2-ylidene (N,O-hc, 5) was found to yield the tris(carbene)trimethylplatinum(IV) compound [PtMe(3)(N,O-hc)(3)](BF(4)) (12(BF(4))), which is thermally stable up to 218 degrees C in the solid state. Furthermore, reactions of [{PtMe(3)(acac)}(2)] (15) with the N,X-heterocyclic carbenes (X = N, O, S; N,S-hc = 3-methylthiazol-2-ylidene, 6) resulted in the formation of monocarbenetrimethylplatinum(IV) complexes [PtMe(3)(acac)(N,X-hc)] (X = N, 16; X = O, 17; X = S, 18), which were found to be stable against reductive C-C elimination at ambient temperature. Reactions of 16 and 17 with 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) in the presence of stoichiometric amounts of H(BF(4)) yielded cationic monocarbeneplatinum(IV) complexes, which were isolated as tetrafluoroborate salts [PtMe(3)(bpy)(N,X-hc)](BF(4)) (X = N, 19(BF(4)); X = O, 20(BF(4))). The compounds have been fully characterized analytically and NMR spectroscopically, and for the bis(carbene)platinum(II) compound 9(CF(3)COO) as well as the monocarbeneplatinum(IV) compounds 16 and 20(BF(4)) by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. DFT calculations of mono-, bis-, and tris(carbene)trimethylplatinum(IV) complexes and their propensity to reductive eliminate ethane were performed. In accordance with the experimental findings, a much higher stability of the tris(N,O-hc)- compared with the tris(N,N-hc)trimethylplatinum(IV) complexes against reductive ethane elimination was found, which could be ascribed mainly to a higher steric demand of the N,N-hc ligand.