Comparing Intrinsic Reactivities of the First‐ and Second‐Generation Ruthenium Metathesis Catalysts in the Gas Phase

An experimental comparison of the gas‐phase reactivity of the 14‐electron reactive intermediates produced by phosphine dissociation from the first‐ and second‐generation ruthenium metathesis catalysts, (L)Cl₂Ru?CHR (L=PCy₃ or NHC), supports Grubbs's contention that the second‐generation catalysts show hundred‐fold higher phenomenological activity despite a slower phosphine dissociation because of a much more‐favorable partitioning of the 14‐electron active species towards product‐forming steps. The gas‐phase study finds, in ring‐opening metathesis of norbornene as well as acyclic metathesis of ethyl vinyl ether, that the first‐generation systems display evidence for a higher barrier above that for phosphine dissociation; the second‐generation systems, on the other hand, behave as if there is no significantly higher barrier.