Highly Active Chiral Ruthenium Catalysts for Cross-Metathesis

Significance

Olefin metathesis has unquestionably emerged as one of the most important synthetic transformations exemplified by awarding the 2005 Nobel Prize to Grubbs, Chauvin and Schrock for their work in this area. In this report, Grubbs and co-workers have extended their Ru-catalyzed cross- and ring-opening cross-meta­thesis to include asymmetric variants (ACM and AROCM respectively). The ACM of various protected alcohols provided the chiral products with moderate yield and enantioselectivity. The ACROCM of various norbornene derivatives gave much higher yields and moderately higher ee values albeit with low E/Z selectivity.