Overcoming Catalyst Decomposition in Acrylate Metathesis: Polyphenol Resins as Enabling Agents for PCy3-Stabilized Metathesis Catalysts

Phosphine-stabilized metathesis catalysts are among the most popular and widely used catalysts in organic synthesis. The second-generation Grubbs catalyst GII, in particular, dominates synthetic applications of olefin metathesis. This is commonly true even for reactions that are fundamentally incompatible with free PCy3, which is released upon entry of GII into the catalytic cycle. A leading example is cross-metathesis with electron-deficient olefins such as acrylates, for which yields are seriously degraded by a deleterious side reaction involving attack of free PCy3 on the acrylate olefin, and production of an enolate anion that decomposes the active catalyst. Here we describe a simple, powerful means of upgrading the performance of GII and its indenylidene analogue M2 to levels matching or exceeding that of the important, but more costly, phosphine-free Hoveyda catalyst HII. Key to this improvement is carrying out the reaction in the presence of a phenol-functionalized polymer resin. We demonstrate tha...