Olefin metathesis

Olefin metathesis has become a tool for synthetic organic and polymer chemists. Well-defined, functional group tolerant catalysts have allowed these advances. A discussion of the evolution of mechanistic understanding and early catalyst developments is followed by a description of recent advances in ruthenium based olefin metathesis catalysts. Catalysts improvements have led to new applications in ring closing metathesis, cross metathesis and materials synthesis. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.