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Abstract

The ruthenium carbene complexes 3a,b bearing imidazol-2-ylidene ligands constitute excellent precatalysts for ring-closing metathesis (RCM) reactions allowing the formation of tri- and tetrasubstituted cycloalkenes. They also apply to annulations that are beyond the scope of the standard Grubbs carbene 1 as well as to ring-closing reactions of acrylic acid derivatives even if the resulting α,β-unsaturated lactones (or lactams) are tri- or tetrasubstituted. The reactivity of 3a was found to be highly dependent on the reaction medium:  particularly high reaction rates are observed in toluene, although this solvent also leads to an increased tendency of the catalyst to isomerize the double bonds of the substrates.