Novel catalytic performance of ruthenium complexes for organic synthesis

The development of efficient methods for the selective formation and cleavage of C-C bonds leading to construction of new carbon skeletons catalyzed by transition-metal complexes is a central and challenging subject of modern organic synthesis. Among the various transition-metal complexes, we have recently focused our attention on novel catalytic activity of low valent ruthenium complexes, since ruthenium complexes often show interesting catalytic activity and product selectivity, which are quite different from those with palladium and other transition-metal complexes. Here, we report our recent results of novel catalytic performance of ruthenium complexes for organic synthesis, which include (1) ruthenium-catalyzed novel C-C bond formation using an ambiphilic reactivity of pi -allylruthenium complexes as well as the selective cleavage of C-C bonds via beta -allyl elimination, (2) ruthenium-catalyzed novel methods for preparation of cyclopentenones via ruthenacycle intermediates, and (3) ruthenium-catalyzed novel transformation of sulfur-containing compounds, which enables simple, selective and general syntheses of vicinal-dithioethers and allylic sulfides.