Development of some important nitrogen donor ligands for transition metal homogeneous catalysis

This review provides a broad overview of the literature related to the importance of ligands in homogeneous catalysis. In particular, it describes the types of nitrogen donor ligands that have typically been used for homogeneous catalysis. We surveyed the important transition metal homogenous catalysts explicitly from 2011 up to early 2014 and summarize their comparative catalytic activities. Generally, the main factors observed are the ligand structure, electron donor property and steric bulk which can affect the catalytic activity. Electron count and inductive effect can also influence the efficiency of homogeneous catalyst.