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.