Ligand relay catalysis: a newly emerged synthetic strategy

Abstract

Single metal/multiligand catalysis (SMMLC) has recently been developed for the highly efficient and selective synthesis of valuable compounds. As a newly emerged member of SMMLC, ligand relay catalysis (LRC) injects new vitality into this concept, featuring good tunability, operational simplicity, and metal economy. In this article, the timeline of SMMLC and the relevant work in the last two decades on ligand relay catalysis including dynamic multiligand relay catalysis (DMRC), cooperative ligand relay catalysis (CLRC) and sequential ligand relay catalysis (SLRC) have been listed and discussed, respectively. More attention should be paid to this area to have a better understanding of the relay mechanism. Furthermore, ligand relay catalysis is expected to be applied in the construction of highly functionalized molecular architectures.