Abstract
A set of olefin metathesis catalysts bearing a ruthenium amide moiety was synthesised. In the ruthenium amide form these complexes exhibit very low activity in standard metathesis reactions. However, a dramatic increase of activity was observed upon in situ activation with trimethylsilyl chloride or HCl, allowing successful application of such catalysts in a number of model ring‐closing metathesis, cross‐metathesis and enyne transformations. Moreover, such activated complexes proved to be very effective catalysts for bulk polymerisation of dicyclopentadiene (DCPD). The influence of factors such as temperature and the nature of additives on the properties of poly‐DCPD was examined.
Ruthenium carbene complexes bearing an amide moiety were synthesised. Upon treatment with activators such as HCl or Me3SiCl they exhibited high activity in ring‐opening polymerisation and olefin metathesis reactions.