Alkylidene Complexes -- Synthesis and Mechanisms

This research involves the synthesis of new high oxidation state early metal complexes that contain an alkylidene ligand. Since 2007 the majority of investigations involve new monoalkoxide pyrrolide (MAP) complexes in which the metal is a stereogenic center. MAP catalysts offer many practical advantages over previous bisalkoxide or diolate catalysts, and also allow several fundamental mechanistic issues to be addressed for the first time. Monoalkoxide halide (MAX) complexes have opened a new chapter in metathesis chemistry of difficult substrates, especially electron poor olefins such a dihaloethylenes.