Iridium Complexes in Olefination Reactions

Iridium complexes were found to catalyze the olefination of aldehydes in the presence of triphenylphosphine with both ethyl diazoacetate and trimethylsilyldiazomethane. Conjugated esters were obtained under mild reaction conditions at room temperature using [IrCl(cod)]2, whereas Vaska’s complex was used to synthesize terminal alkenes from trimethylsilyldiazomethane.