Mechanistic evaluation of metal-catalyzed hydrogen-transfer processes: The Shvo catalyst as an example of computational unravelling

The proposed mechanisms for the hydrogen-transfer processes catalyzed by several metal complexes within the literature are reviewed, paying special attention to its computational analysis concerning the factors affecting the mechanism such as ligand lability and alkoxide stability. Afterwards, we focus on one of the most paradigmatic hydrogen-transfer processes catalyzed by the Shvo complex. It presents great versatility applied in a broad range of hydrogen-transfer processes to polar (ketones, imines) and non-polar (alkene, alkynes) bonds, and even successfully heterogenized by a sol-gel process.