You will prepare and submit a term paper on Insertion of Unsaturated Species Into M-C Bonds in Cyclometallated Complexes. Your paper should be a minimum of 2750 words in length.

You will prepare and submit a term paper on Insertion of Unsaturated Species Into M-C Bonds in Cyclometallated Complexes. Your paper should be a minimum of 2750 words in length. Blaser( 2004) observes that the plentiful supply of alkanes in oil and natural gas stirs up a desire to explore their use as chemical feedstocks for the catalytic synthesis of organic molecules. However, alkanes are one of the most chemically inert organic chemicals known. For instance, methane is one of the most common but least reactive molecules in nature. Selective and efficient transformation of hydrocarbons into functionalized molecules such as alcohols, ketones and acids is of great industrial importance. The potential use of alkanes has attracted a lot of interest in the search for metal complexes that can activate C-H bonds in saturated hydrocarbons due to the fact that alkanes would be a much better feedstock economically for the organic chemical industry. ( Blaser, 2004)

Cross-coupling reactions have been developed as a versatile tool for carob carbon bond formations. ( Davies 2006). Beaucage goes further and makes an observation that there is a growing importance of these reactions due to their mild reaction conditions, making them compatible with a wide variety of functional groups. Therefore, these reactions are necessary for the advanced stage during the total synthesis of complex chemicals such as drugs, vitamins, flavours, fragrances, agrochemicals and performance materials. Cross-coupling reactions are classified according to the nature of the organometallic substrate applied and often named after their discoverers. The important examples include the following:

Thagathar explains that Heck reactions do not involve organometals as substrates and hence may not be considered as cross-coupling reactions, but its alkyne version, especially the Sonogashira reaction which involves the use of catalytic amounts of CuI salts is usually deemed as cross-coupling reaction. The most common catalyzes for cross-coupling reactions include Ni(O) and Pd(O)( Thagathar 2006).