Ruthenium Scavenger

28 May 2004

Ruthenium is often the transition metal of choice at the centre of olefin metathesis catalysts such as Grubbs’ catalyst. Although olefin metathesis has been extremely widely used in small-scale synthesis, it is only recently that companies have been looking to use it on scale. As with any other transition metal catalysed process, removing the transition metal can be a problem. A recent publication describes an efficient and inexpensive polymer-supported scavenger for Grubbs’ catalyst. Typical ruthenium levels of 108ppm can be reduced to <10 ppm.

Tetrahedron Letters, 2004, 45(15), 3141-3142.