Recent developments of iron pincer complexes for catalytic applications

Iron catalysis is attractive for organic synthesis because iron is inexpensive, abundant, and non-toxic. To control the activity and stability of an iron center, a large number of iron pincer complexes have been synthesized. Many such complexes exhibit excellent catalytic activity in a number of important organic reactions such as hydrogenation, hydrosilylation, dehydrogenation, and carbon-carbon bond forming reactions. In this review, recent examples of representative iron pincer catalysts are presented.