Principles in Organolanthanide Chemistry

Abstract

During the last decade, the rare earth elements have given enormous stimulus to the field of organic synthesis including stereoselective catalysis. This article outlines both the basic and advanced principles of their organometallic chemistry. The intrinsic electronic features of this 17-element series are reviewed in order to better understand the structural chemistry of their complexes and the resulting structure-activity relationships. Particular emphasis is placed on synthetic aspects, i.e. optimization of established procedures and alternative methods with better access to catalytically relevant species. Accordingly, tailor-made ancillary ligands are reported in detail and the reactivity pattern of lanthanide compounds is examined with representative examples.