Robert H. Grubbs coauthored template-directed ring-closing metathesis research. Coordination to a template can bring reactive ends of a polyether-containing chain into an arrangement favourable for ring formation.
This connects catalysis with molecular preorganization: a template changes the accessible geometry, while a metathesis catalyst carries out bond reorganization.[ref]
Template-Directed Ring-Closing Metathesis: Synthesis and Polymerization of Unsaturated Crown Ether Analogs by Michael J. Marsella and others. Lithium-templated formation of unsaturated crown-ether analogues
Portrait of Robert H. Grubbs
. The Royal Society; author listed as Duncan.Hull. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.
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