3.1.1. General

All reactions were routinely carried out under argon atmosphere, using standard Schlenk techniques. Solvents were HPLC grade and degassed before use. Glassware was oven dried before use. Infrared spectra (4000–400 cm⁻¹) were recorded at 298 K on a PerkinElmer Spectrum 2000 FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrophotometer (Waltham, MA, USA), and ESI MS (electrospray ionization mass spectrometry) spectra were recorded on a Waters Micromass ZQ 4000 (Milford, MA, USA), with samples dissolved in CH₃OH or CH₃CN. All deuterated solvents were degassed before use. NMR measurements were taken on Varian Inova 300 (Varian, Palo Alto, CA, USA), a Mercury Plus 400 (Oxford Instruments, Abingdon-on-Thames, UK), and an Inova 600 (Varian, Palo Alto, CA, USA) instruments. Frequencies are reported in Hz and the chemical shifts were referenced to the solvent (CDCl₃ δ = 7.27 and 77.0 ppm for ¹H and ¹³C NMR, respectively). NMR spectra were recorded at 298 K. The chemical shifts are expressed in parts per million (ppm). Absorption spectra were recorded using an Agilent Cary 100 UV–vis spectrometer (Santa Clara, CA, USA). All the chemicals were of reagent grade and were used as received from commercial suppliers. Commercially available [RuCl₃·xH₂O] was purchased from Strem (Bischheim, France). Compound [Ru(H)₂CO(PPh₃)₃] 1 was prepared by published methods [49]. Commercially available 12-HSA was purchased from Merk (Darmstad, Germany). 7-, 9-HSA were prepared by published methods [38,48].