Radical additions to styrene-transition metal complexes

ORGN 556

Jeffrey H. Byers, byers@middlebury.edu, Nicholas J. Janson, Matthew K. Griswold, and Daniel M. O'Mara. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753
Transition metal pi-complexes have long proven to be valuable reagents for synthetic organic chemists, given the myriad of ways in which they can modify the organic ligand. The body of known information about radical reactions in organic synthesis has also shown dramatic growth over the last 25 years. The subset of these two reaction families, namely radical reactions of transition metal pi complexes, has received only modest attention. We have recently demonstrated radical addition reactions with styrene chromiumtricarbonyl (Eq. 1) and dihydronaphthalene rutheniumcyclopentadienide hexafluorophosphate (Eq. 2).