The latest paper by Feliu Maseras, Pedro Pérez, M. Mar Díaz-Requejo and their research teams is highlighted in the cover of Dalton Transactions Issue 12.

This report examines the ability of different coinage metal-based complexes to catalyse cross-coupling reactions of diazocompounds. The researchers can tune the metal centre (silver or copper) with the appropriate ligand to obtain either the homo- or the hetero-coupling product as desired.

The authors also study the mechanistic details of the reaction to find out that the step that controls the selectivity of the process is the initial reaction between the metallocarbene intermediate and one of the diazo compounds.

Ivan Rivilla , W. M. C. Sameera , Eleuterio Alvarez , M. Mar Díaz-Requejo , Feliu Maseras and Pedro J. Pérez

Dalton Trans., 2013, 42, 4132-4138