The Golden Age of Transfer Hydrogenation

Light-Emitting Self-Assembled Materials Based on d(8) and d(10) Transition Metal Complexes.

Anti-cancer drugs

Triggered by the resounding success of cisplatin, the past decades have seen tremendous efforts to produce clinically beneficial analogues. The recent achievement of oxaliplatin for the treatment of colon cancer should, however, not belie the imbalance between a plethora of investigated complexes and a very small number of clinically approved platinum drugs. Strategies opening up new avenues are increasingly being sought using complexes of metals other than platinum such as ruthenium or gallium. Based on the chemical differences between these metals, the spectrum of molecular mechanisms of action and potential indications can be broadened substantially. Other approaches focus on complexes with tumour-targeting properties, thereby maximizing the impact on cancer cells and minimizing the problem of adverse side effects, and complexes with biologically active ligands.

Antitumour metal compounds: more than theme and variations

The demand for new chemicals spanning the fields of health care to materials science combined with the pressure to produce these substances in an environmentally benign fashion pose great challenges to the synthetic chemical community. The maximization of synthetic efficiency by the conversion of simple building blocks into complex targets remains a fundamental goal. In this context, ruthenium complexes catalyze a number of non-metathesis conversions and allow the rapid assembly of complex molecules with high selectivity and atom economy. These complexes often exhibit unusual reactivity. Careful consideration of the mechanistic underpinnings of the transformations can lead to the design of new reactions and the discovery of new reactivity.

Ruthenium-catalyzed reactions--a treasure trove of atom-economic transformations.

Activation of 2-Propyn-1-ol Derivatives by Indenylruthenium(II) and -osmium(II) Complexes: X-ray Crystal Structures of the Allenylidene Complexes [M(CCCPh2)(η5-C9H7)(PPh3)2][PF6]·CH2Cl2 (M = Ru, Os) and EHMO Calculations

Allenylidene and higher cumulenylidene complexes [M]=C(=C)n=CR1R2 (n = 1, 2, 3) have continuously gained significance in the context of transition metal carbene chemistry. Important developments which have been disclosed during the last two years are reviewed. These include a variety of stoichiometric and catalytic reactions of allenylidene complexes and their utility in organic synthesis. The related chemistry of butatrienylidene (n = 2) and pentatetraenylidene (n = 3) complexes as well as theoretical studies are also reviewed.

M. Pilar Gamasa

Papers

Activation of 2-Propyn-1-ol Derivatives by Indenylruthenium(II) and -osmium(II) Complexes: X-ray Crystal Structures of the Allenylidene Complexes [M(CCCPh2)(η5-C9H7)(PPh3)2][PF6]·CH2Cl2 (M = Ru, Os) and EHMO Calculations

Recent Developments in the Reactivity of Allenylidene and Cumulenylidene Complexes

Indenyl complexes of Group 8 metals

Synthesis and reactivity of α,β-unsaturated alkylidene and cumulenylidene Group 8 half-sandwich complexes

Phosphine Substitution in Indenyl- and Cyclopentadienylruthenium Complexes. Effect of the η5 Ligand in a Dissociative Pathway