01/2010

Rhodium(II)-catalysts have proved to be some of the most effective systems for C–H Functionalization. This report from the Davies group explores the practical and experimental limits of these systems for the rhodium(II)-catalyzed carbenoid C–H insertion reaction.

The reaction can be done using extremely small loadings of the catalyst (less than 1 part per million) and acheive extremely high efficiencies (TON of over 1 Million) and be done without solvent.

The information gained from these investigations will inform the design of catalyst and reactor systems in the future. With a particular emphasis on sustainability and scalability learning about how these transformations perform when you start to push the limits of the reaction parameters is important.