Ruthenium-based olefin metathesis catalysts bearing N-heterocyclic carbene ligands.

N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands, introduced as analogues to phosphines, are recently getting wide attention in the design of diverse homogeneous catalytic systems.1-6 During recent years, olefin metathesis has gained a position of increasing significance.7-9 The ruthenium complex (PCy3)2(Cl2)RudCHPh 1 (Cy ) cyclohexyl) developed by Grubbs et al.10 constitutes a highly efficient metathesis catalyst11 tolerating most functional groups. In spite of the generally superb application profile of 1, its limited stability and the low activity toward substituted double bonds are major drawbacks. The initial success of olefin metathesis has spurred the intense investigation of new catalysts for this transformation. Inter alia, the recent introduction of NHCs * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: klgrela@ gmail.com. † Polish Academy of Sciences. ‡ Warsaw University. Cezary Samojłowicz was born in 1983 in Sokołów Podlaski, Poland. He obtained his MSc Eng. degree in chemical technology from the Warsaw University of Technology, studying sigmatropic rearrangements of sulfur ylides under the supervision of Tadeusz Zdrojewski. Before moving to olefin metathesis, he conducted work on supramolecular chemistry with David Reinhoudt at Twente University. Since 2007, he is conducting his PhD study under the supervision of Karol Grela.