The
appropriate reaction conditions for ruthenium-catalyzed ene-yne
metathesis are substantially affected by the substituents and functional
groups on the terminal alkyne reactant. We have identified that two
distinct methods, utilizing a single precatalyst IMes(Cl)2Ru(CHC6H4OiPr) (1; IMes = 1,3-dimesitylimidazol-2-ylidene), are needed to
achieve high turnovers and good yields in ene-yne metathesis reactions
of heteroatom-free or functionalized terminal alkynes and ethylene.
The wide-ranging yields of 1,3-dienes from ene-yne metathesis of a
series of terminal alkynes under a single set of benchmark conditions,
namely, 3 mol % of 1, toluene, 75 °C, and 20 bar
C2H4, identified groups of highly, moderately,
or poorly performing alkynes. Studies of the effects of reaction conditions
on yields, turnovers, and effective rates in the reactions of alkynes
from these groups lead to distinct optimized approaches for efficacious
syntheses. Quantitative yields are obtained using 0.6 mol % of 1, one fifth of the benchmark loading, in preparative-scale
experiments under conventional conditions in which the highly efficient
alkyne and 1 are mixed, followed by pressurization with
ethylene. In contrast, the metered addition method, in which a moderately
or poorly performing alkyne and a solution of 1 are slowly
and separately added to an ethylene-pressurized reaction vessel, can
improve turnovers up to 1500% to access 2-substituted-1,3-diene-containing
carboxylic acids, carbonyls, amines, epoxides, or halides in a single
step. Moreover, the increased effective rates of reactions for functionalized
alkynes under dilute conditions, and comparisons with heteroatom-free
alkyne conversions, suggest that the former reacts more rapidly than
the latter in ene-yne metathesis, but their transformations are also
more sensitive to catalyst deactivation.