The advent of well-defined catalysts for olefin metathesis which combine high activity, durability, and excellent tolerance towards polar functional groups has revolutionized the field. The past decade has seen the rapid embrace of these reagents as tools for advanced organic and polymer chemistry and the success of this development is witnessed by a plethora of elegant applications to the synthesis of natural and nonnatural products. This review article provides an overview of these developments and intends to familiarize the reader with some very recent advances which hold the promise to expand the scope of the reaction even further. Moreover, the positive impact of metathesis on the fundamental logic of retrosynthetic planning is demonstrated by means of typical examples. Finally, it will be shown that metathesis is by no means restricted to alkenes as substrates, and some comments on metathesis reactions following unconventional mechanistic pathways will also be presented.

Olefin Metathesis and Beyond

Poly(aryleneethynylene)s: Syntheses, Properties, Structures, and Applications

One of the initial steps in the development of therapeutic agents is the identification of lead compounds that bind to the receptor or enzyme target of interest. Many analogs of these lead compounds are then synthesized to define the key recognition elements for maximal activity. In general, many compounds must be evaluated in both the lead identification and optimization steps. Increasing burdens have been placed on these efforts due to the large number of new therapeutic targets that continue to be identified thorough modern molecular biology methods.1 To address this demand, very powerful chemical and biological methods have been developed for the generation of large combinatorial libraries of peptides2 and oligonucleotides3 that are then screened against a receptor or enzyme to identify high-affinity ligands or potent inhibitors, respectively. While these studies have clearly demonstrated the power of library synthesis and screening strategies, peptides and oligonucleotides generally have poor oral activities and rapid in vivo clearance;4 therefore their utility as bioavailable therapeutic agents is often limited. Due to the favorable pharmacokinetic properties of many small organic molecules (<600-700 molecular weight),5 the design, synthesis, and evaluation of libraries of these compounds6 has rapidly become a major frontier in organic chemistry. Lorin A. Thompson was born in Lexington, KY, in 1970. He received the Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1992 where he worked under the guidance of Joseph Desimone. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in the laboratory of Jonathan Ellman at UC Berkeley where he is the 1994 Glaxo-Wellcome fellow. His research interests include the development of synthetic methodology for organic library construction.

/pdf/synthesis-and-applications-of-small-molecule-libraries-3n3gol8dyk.pdf

Synthesis and Applications of Small Molecule Libraries.

The preparation of urea by Wöhler constituted a landmark achievement in organic chemistry, and it laid the ground for the early days of target-oriented organic synthesis.1 Since then, significant progress has been achieved in this discipline; many powerful single bond forming reactions and asymmetric variants have been developed. These discoveries have paved the way for the stereoselective assembly of complex organic molecules, a task deemed inconceivable by early practitioners. A great many strategies were invented by chemists in order to facilitate the synthesis of complex natural products.2 One avenue in emulating nature’s efficiency would * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dennis.hall@ ualberta.ca. † Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research. ‡ Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta. Chem. Rev. 2009, 109, 4439–4486 4439

Natural product synthesis using multicomponent reaction strategies.

http://alpha.chem.umb.edu/chemistry/ch611/documents/C-Htransitionmetalbonds.pdf

Carbonhydrogen-transition metal bonds

Metathesis of acetylenes by tungsten(VI)-alkylidyne complexes

Multiple metal-carbon bonds. 16. Tungsten-oxo alkylidene complexes as olefins metathesis catalysts and the crystal structure of W(O)(CHCMe3(PEt3)Cl2

Tungsten(VI) neopentylidyne complexes

Preparation and characterization of active niobium, tantalum and tungsten metathesis catalysts

Preparation et structures de [Al(OR) 2 (β-dicet)] n (OR=alcoolation silanolate) et [Al(OR)(β-dicet) 2 ] 2 . Ces composes sont stables en solution. Donnees RMN de 1 H

Jeffrey H. Wengrovius

Papers

Metathesis of acetylenes by tungsten(VI)-alkylidyne complexes

Multiple metal-carbon bonds. 16. Tungsten-oxo alkylidene complexes as olefins metathesis catalysts and the crystal structure of W(O)(CHCMe3(PEt3)Cl2

Tungsten(VI) neopentylidyne complexes

Preparation and characterization of active niobium, tantalum and tungsten metathesis catalysts

Aluminum alkoxide chemistry revisited: synthesis, structures, and characterization of several aluminum alkoxide and siloxide complexes