Catalytic methods for metal carbene transformations

The synthetic uses of organic diazo compounds for carhenoid transformations have undergone a renaissance in recent years as a result of the development of new transition-metal catalysts and the design of effective strategies for their application. Catalytic methods have supplanted thermal and photochemical schemes, and efficient procedures for cyclopropanation, dipolar addition, insertion, and ylide generation have arisen. In addition, recent advances in the mechanistic understanding of transition-metal-catalyzed transformations have removed a significant amount of the voodoo that had been associated with these processes. Originally suggested by Yates,' there is now general agreement that transition-metal catalysts react with diazo compounds to generate transient electrophilic metal carhenes 1. The catalytic activity of transiL,,M=CR, L,M--C+R* 1 Michael P. Doyle was born in Minneapolis, MN. He received his Bachelor's degree from the College of St. Thomas in 1964 and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 1968. where he worked under the direction of Professor Walter S. Trahanovsky. Following a relatively brief postdoctoral engagement wiih Professor Jan Rocek at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, he joined the facuny at Hope College in 1968. In 1984 he moved to Trinity University as the Dr. D. R. Semmes Distinguished Rofessw of Chemistry. H e is the recipient of a Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award (1973) and a Chemical Manufacturers Association Catalyst Award (1982). His research interests include catalytic processes in carbene chemistry and their use in the development of new synthetic methods, chemical and biochemical transformations of nitrogen oxides and dinitrqen compounds, and oxdation-reduction reactions.