Ruthenium catalysts for selective nucleophilic allylic substitution.

Paper based on a presentation at the 14th International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis (OMCOS-14), 2-6 August 2007, Nara, Japan. Other presentations are published in this issue, pp. 807-1194Recent developments in the chemistry of η3-allylruthenium(IV) complexes are due to their straightforward synthesis resulting from oxidative addition of allylic substrates to a ruthenium(II) center. Subsequent reaction with a nucleophile is the basis of their involvement in the catalytic allylic substitution reaction. We focus here on ruthenium-catalyzed substitution of allylic substrates by C-, N-, and O-nucleophiles and show that selected ligands make regio- and enantioselective reactions possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]