A medium fiuorous Grubbs-Hoveyda 2nd generation catalyst for phase transfer catalysis of ring closing metathesis reactions

A fluorous Grubbs-Hoveyda metathesis catalyst supported on Teflon (R) powder, that readily moves between the solid phase (Teflon (R)) and the liquid phase (DMF) was prepared. By modulating the hydrophobicity of the reaction medium at the end of the reaction, the supported catalyst could be recovered by simple filtration even though the catalyst existed in a homogeneous state during the reaction. In RCM reactions, the catalyst could be reused up to three times with only a slight loss in reactivity with each subsequent cycle. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.