Photoreactivity of bis(tricyclohexylphosphine)benzylidene ruthenium dichloride (Grubbs's catalyst)

Zusammenfassung

The carbene complex Ru-II(CHPh)(PCy3)(2)Cl-2 (CY = cyclohexyl) in benzene undergoes a photochemical release of a phosphine ligand with phi = 2.5 x 10(-3) at lambda (irr) = 546 nm. The reactive excited state is assumed to be a ligand field triplet. It is suggested that the photodissociation is initiated by a distortion of the complex from a square-planar towards a trigonal-bipyramidal structure. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.