The State of Art of Catalysts for the Anti-Markovnikov Hydration of Terminal Alkynes

Abstract

CC triple bonds give the possibility to synthesize a plethora of chemical products by reacting with compounds containing electrophilic and nucleophilic moieties. Thus, an alkyne represents a valuable starting point in organic synthesis since the product very often remains unsaturated and one can further benefit from this in subsequent synthetic steps. Alkyne hydration, which is a simple, yet powerful, transformative tool, belongs to this astonishing variety of reactions. Anti-Markovnikov hydration is readily realized using special ruthenium catalysts; their review is presented in this paper, accompanied by their reaction mechanism and possible applications in pharmaceutical industry.