Multiple Metal-Carbon Bonds, Metallacycles, and Catalytic Olefin Metathesis Reactions

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This award in the Chemical Synthesis (SYN) program supports work by Professor Richard R. Schrock at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to carry out fundamental studies on olefin metathesis catalysts based on molybdenum or tungsten. Olefin metathesis is a catalytic reaction that consists of breaking and rearranging carbon-carbon double bonds in organic molecules. The benefit of the reaction to mankind was recognized through the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Schrock, Grubbs, and Chauvin. New developments in the last two years have led to new types of molybdenum and tungsten catalysts that are much more reactive and selective than any previous catalysts. The proposed work includes an investigation of the interconversion and relative reactivity of syn and anti alkylidene isomers and devising routes to new MonoAlkoxide Pyrrolide (MAP) catalysts and related species, including selective catalysts supported on silica or alumina.The olefin metathesis reaction has revolutionized the synthesis of organic molecules relevant to natural and unnatural products for treatment of diseases such as cancers and AIDS, as well as the synthesis of specialty polymers. Newly developed applications include the synthesis of organic molecules from renewable resources such as seed oils and the selective synthesis of organic molecules that contain only a cis carbon-carbon double bond, the type that is most common in natural products and the most useful in organic synthesis.