Congratulations to Ph.D. student Manar Shoshani and Prof. Sam Johnson on the publication of their work on the use of pentanuclear nickel clusters for the selective cleavage of C=C bonds in alkenes! These clusters are selective in that they do not attack functional groups, and operate to give quantitative yields at temperatures down to −30 °C!
Click here for more information on Prof. Johnson's research.
See the original article at this link!
Carbons and hydrogens associated with the phosphine ligands and disorder of C(9) and C(10) are omitted for clarity. This 72-electron [Ni5]6+ cluster reveals the triple C–H bond activation of one styrene vinyl moiety, shown in blue, which is coordinated to all five nickel centres prior to C–C cleavage. Two iPr3P groups are replaced by a coordinated styrene moiety, shown in red.
