Extending Classical Organic Reactions to Organometallic Chemistry
A number of classical organic reactions are immense important in the historical development of chemistry. Meanwhile, organometallic compounds are multifaceted in their function and have strong impact on emerging areas of chemistry nowadays, especially a variety of catalytic process. However, most of the organometallic compounds are extremely sensitive to air and moisture, and usually required to manipulate under inert atmosphere using standard Schlenk techniques. Therefore, the direct extending classical organic reactions to organometallic chemistry is unfeasible. But, we have recently achieved promising approaches and thus broadened the scope of classical organic reactions.
Over the past decade, a series of metallacycles has been achieved in our group. The main difference of our compounds from usual organometallic compounds is that they are remarkably stable towards air, water and heat. In some cases, they can even be compatible with bases and acids. Recently, we attempted to apply several classic organic reactions in metallacyclic compounds. As shown in following Scheme, certain key intermediates can be isolated from the reactions which provide new insights into the understanding of the classic organic reactions. Additionally, these investigations open up new avenues of metallacyclic series.
