1,5-Cyclooctdiene(1,3,5-cyclooctatriene)ruthenium(0) can be used as a catalyst precursor for olefin dehydrogenation silylation, hydroacylation, amine carbonylation and various carbon-carbon bond formation reactions.
To a solution of RuCl3.3H2O (0.34 g, 1.3 mmol) in 10 mL of ethanol is added 1,5- cyclooctadiene (8.8 g, 81 mmol) and zinc dust (3.5 g); the mixture is heated under reflux with stirring for 3 h and then filtered; the resulting brown-yellow solution is evaporated in vacuo, extracted with 20 mL of pentane and filtered through a plug of alumina (20 cm); the volume is reduced to ca. 5 mL and the yellow solution cooled to -78 °C to give yellow crystals of (1,5-cyclooctadiene)(1,3,5-cyclooctatriene)ruthenium (0.2 g, 50%).
