Upgrading ethylene into ligands!
The ligand bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane or dppe, and derivatives thereof, have countless uses in transition metal catalysis as ligands to modulate reactivity. Traditionally, the way dppe ligands are prepared are not super amenable to making asymmetric analogues. This method from Maeda and Mita (Hokkaido University) deftly addresses this shortcoming using light-driven reactivity.