Activation of organic compounds and catalytic reactions with ruthenium complexes

Recent progress in chemistry on ruthenium complexes is reviewed from a viewpoint of homogeneous ruthenium complex-catalyzed organic synthesis. Same real active intermediary species of the ruthenium complex-catalysis are isolated from the catalytic reaction mixtures or their model complexes are synthesized by stoichiometric methods. This article deals with the following subjects : (i) Progress on the ruthenium (II) -BINAP complexes which exhibits higher activity and stereoselectivity in catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation, (ii) Ruthenium(II) complex-promoted activation of some organic compounds such as alkenes, alkynes and nitriles, forming various types of complexes with the activated ligands, (iii) Relationship between the active ruthenium (0) complexes and the ruthenium-catalyzed C-H activation.