Water-soluble ruthenium vinylidene and allenylidene complexes: Potential catalysts for ring-opening metathesis

Reaction of the water-soluble ruthenium complex [{RuCl2(TPPMS)(2)}Na-2](2). 4H(2)O with phenylacetylene and diphenylpropargyl alcohol in THF at room temperature gave the water-soluble unsaturated carbenes [{RuCl2{C=C(H)Ph}(TPPMS)(2)}]Na-2 and [{RuCl(mu-Cl)-(C=C=CPh2)(TPPMS)(2)}(2)]Na-4, respectively. The ability of these complexes, which represents the first example of water-soluble vinylidenes and allenylidenes, to catalyze the ring-opening metathesis of cyclic olefins with methyl acrylate as chain transfer reagents is briefly discussed.