Pincer Complexes of Iron and Their Application in Catalysis

Iron-based catalysis is an increasingly studied area of research, as is evident from the ever-increasing number of iron catalyzed chemical transformations developed over the past two decades. Well defined pincer based iron complexes are of interest, due to their thermal stability and the ability to fine tune (via synthesis) the electronic and steric properties of the metal complex. This chapter overviews the general pincer ligand framework, with detailed discussion of two of the most widely used ligand classes: 2,6-disubstituted pyridine and 1,3-disubstituted benzene. Discussion will include both ligand and complex synthesis and subsequent catalytic applications.